Journey to the End
by AliaofTwoWorlds
Summary: Hitsugaya Toushirou's graduation from the Academy was different from everyone else's, and he suddenly found an unbelievable amount of responsibility thrust upon him. Elaborated from a brief story that will be in one of my later fics.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this is pretty random. Later in the larger story I'm writing (of which **_**Stranger **_**is the first part) Alia is going to end up talking to Matsumoto about how Hitsugaya became a captain. I was just going to leave the explanation at what I put there, but for some insane reason I decided to elaborate on it, and thus **_**Journey to the End **_**was born. It's probably a pretty unlikely explanation of how it all happened, but as I'm kind of obsessive about Hitsugaya, he inevitably ends up seeming totally amazing in my stories. Ah well, if you don't like him, you probably wouldn't be reading this. The story is told from multiple points of view, starting and ending with Hitsugaya's.**

* * *

><p>"Which division are you aiming for?"<p>

"Definitely the second."

"I heard the sixth is really selective."

"My brother's 12th seat in the thirteenth."

"So you want to be in the thirteenth?"

"No way! I want to be in the third."

"What about you?"

"I don't know…"

"Oh, come on. How can you not have a preference?"

"Who cares? It's not like hoping for one is going to get you into it."

"Yeah, but you can still hope for it!"

"Which one are you aiming for, then?"

"Fifth for sure."

There is one thing that every person has the opportunity to feel in equal measure, no matter who they are; be they black, white, or even Shinigami, and that's the excitement of graduation. It may mean something different to everyone, but they all feel the anticipation of knowing they're about to move on into another, new part of their lives.

Hitsugaya Toushirou felt it too, though he perhaps didn't show it quite as much as some of his classmates. He allowed the excitement to exist, though it was contained.

There was partly an obvious reason for this—Toushirou celebrated alone. He had no real friends here since the fiasco with Kusaka, and he was younger, smaller, and smarter than the rest of them. Nevertheless, no one had the time to tease him today; they were all absorbed in their own excitement, gathered around the entrance to the largest training area outside of the Academy.

Mostly in groups of three, four, and five, the soon-to-be-graduates stood around, waiting for instruction, chattering excitedly or staring nervously at the gate to the training grounds. When one of their trainers appeared through the gate, silence fell more quickly than it ever had before, every student gazing expectantly at the trainer.

"Each of you will be called out individually, by the order of your last name. You will go out into the training grounds through this door," he indicated the door he had just come through, "where you will face one of your trainers in a short spar. There is no need to introduce yourself. This is a chance to show your skills and what you have learned to the captains of the Gotei 13. Do not hesitate to use anything you have learned during your time at the Academy. The trainer you are sparring with will call off the fight when your time is up. At that time, you will proceed through the door on the opposite side of the training grounds, to a courtyard where you will await the final decision. When you arrive in the courtyard, you will be given a name card. Your division number will appear on the card when they have made their decision, and you will group yourselves according to division. When every student has been placed, the vice-captains of your new divisions will lead you to your barracks, where you will be introduced to your new home, your responsibilities, and probably your captain. We will begin in about ten minutes, so prepare yourselves."

The trainer disappeared once more through the door to the training grounds, but this time the chatter from before did not start up again. Toushirou recognized his own slight nervousness and shut it away; he did not need it to do this. He was at the top of his class. He had achieved far more than any of his fellow students in the way of combat.

It seemed like no time at all had passed when the door to the grounds was opened once again. "Ageda Mai" came through the door, and a girl standing near the front shook her hair out of her face, stood up straight, and marched into the training grounds. The door shut once again.

Toushirou stared around at his classmates and wondered vaguely how many of them would be in his division, whichever he was in. He didn't really care; no matter which division he was in, it would inevitably be another battle for respect. He hadn't really earned it from his classmates, but maybe he could earn it from his fellow division members if he worked hard enough. He was still young. The dream was far off, but maybe he could become a vice-captain someday. Or even a captain…

"_I'm gonna be a captain for sure!"_

"_You can't know that."_

"_I can feel it. Besides, I'm great at fighting, and I'm smart too! I'll be a captain someday, I know it."_

"_Don't be so arrogant, Kusaka."_

"_Oh, come on, Toushirou. We can be captains together!"_

"_I sincerely doubt that'll ever happen."_

"_You're so gloomy. You're ruining my mood."_

"_Now if you're ever a captain, it'll be a surprise."_

_Kusaka looked at him incredulously. "Did you just make a joke, Toushirou?" _

"_No." but he smiled. Kusaka ran a few feet to catch up with him and punched him lightly in the arm. _

"_I'm willing to bet we really will be captains someday."_

_You were wrong…_

_No_, Toushirou thought. This wasn't the time to be thinking of that. Still, memories of his former best friend plagued his thoughts. He took a deep breath, trying to drive them away, and felt a comforting presence in the back of his mind.

"_Hyourinmaru."_

"_Of course."_

This effectively drove away bitter memories of Kusaka and brought Toushirou back to wondering exactly where he was in relation to his classmates. He didn't really talk to them, so he couldn't be sure, but as far as he knew, he was the only one who had progressed to the point where he could actually have a conversation with his zanpakutou in his mind.

"_Not many can do that."_

"_Not many of my classmates? How would you know that?"_

"_No. Just not many."_

The dragon in his mind settled down at that point, leaving Toushirou wondering what he meant.

He looked around; there were about sixty graduates total, and he would say probably ten of them had gone. He must be coming up fairly soon. He focused his mind around the zanpakutou residing there, drawing strength from its presence. _I'm ready for this._


	2. Chapter 2

"Hayashi Natsumi."

A tall but quick girl that Toushirou had sparred with a few times disappeared through the door to the training grounds.

_I'm next_, Toushirou thought, remembering his name being after hers on the class lists. He took a deep breath and concentrated on reaching into his mind. Hyourinmaru helped calm his nerves, as always. He considered going over battle strategies and incantations for kidou in his mind, but decided it was pointless; that would just make him more nervous. In a true fight, one felt what to do partly on instinct. There was no way he could plan this out, so he would just have to trust that he and Hyourinamru could do it.

_Of course we can. We always have before._

It had seemed to take no time at all for the first student to be called, but Toushirou felt that an eternity had passed since Natsumi had gone. He knew that was just nerves; it couldn't have realistically been any more than five minutes. That was how long each spar was supposed to last.

Finally, the door opened once again. Toushirou stiffened and placed a hand on the hilt of his zanpakutou. _This is it._

"Ishikawa Ataro."

The world seemed to fall through the floor momentarily. They hadn't called him. What could have gone wrong? Had he perhaps been mistaken, had he not been good enough to graduate? That was ridiculous, he was at the top of his class.

_There has to have been a mistake. They'll call me next._

He glanced around, but it seemed that no one but him had memorized the order of the graduates. Not a single one of his classmates seemed to notice or care that they had been called in the wrong order.

_Calm down._

He focused his mind around Hyourinmaru again, calming himself. It really didn't matter what order they went in, after all. The fight would still be the same. He couldn't allow something that was beyond his control to upset him, to throw off his fight. Still, there was a slight nagging worry at the back of his mind.

That worry only increased when they called three more students ahead of him. He began to pace the courtyard where they were waiting, trying to convince himself that it was going to be fine, that perhaps they had forgotten to put him on the list of graduates, and that they would simply call him at the end. No one looked around at his pacing; after all, a few of the other students had taken to doing the same thing in preparation for their spar.

By the time there was only one other person remaining, Toushirou had stopped pacing and was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his sword in his lap. He thought he saw the last student, a short but muscular blond boy, throw him a slightly curious glance as he was called to his own spar.

Toushirou took a deep breath when the door had closed behind the boy. Now, they would surely realize their mistake and call him out after this last fight was over. However, he was sure he waited more than ten minutes, and nothing happened. He was beginning to think they had forgotten him completely, when one of the trainers finally emerged from the door to the training area.

Relieved, Toushirou got to his feet and walked over to the door. The trainer watched him with a very strange expression. When Toushirou had gotten close, he stopped and said, "sir, what…?"

The trainer continued to look curiously down at Toushirou. "It'll be a few minutes more. The captains have to have a… special talk about you."

Dread filled Toushirou at his words. What could they possibly need to talk about? Had they decided that, despite his skills, he was too young to graduate? His heart sank. That must be it. They didn't think he could handle being a full shinigami yet. He was going to have to go back, for another horrible, torturous year at—

"Hitsugaya, you can go now."

The trainer startled Toushirou out of his sudden bitter thoughts. "I… can go in?" he said, immediately cursing himself for looking so childish, and for his mental outburst.

"Yes."

Toushirou squared his shoulders and attempted to appear as calm as possible as he finally made the walk through the door. This was it. The delay didn't matter. None of it did. It would still be the same. He was going to move on, continue working hard…

He stopped dead at the edge of the sparring area.

He had expected the captains to be lined up on either side of the training grounds, watching from the shadows, and the trainer he would face to be standing there, waiting for him. Instead, the captains seemed to be lined up at one end of the area, all watching with very serious expressions. In the middle was one of them—an old, bald man with a long white beard, whose mere presence gave off an immeasurable sense of power.

_What's going on?_

Hyourinmaru stirred in the back of his mind, and Toushirou felt a slight confusion from the dragon. This unsettled him; Hyourinmaru rarely seemed to express any sort of concern. He walked silently up to the man standing in the middle of the grounds, suddenly quite aware of just how short he was.

Just as he stopped a few feet in front of him, the old man spoke. "Hitsugaya Toushirou," he rumbled, and Toushirou's eyes snapped to his face. "You have come today, presenting to us unique circumstances. To solve for this we have been forced to devise an equally unique solution." Toushirou had the impression that the man was speaking to the captains behind him as much as to Toushirou himself, as some of the captains didn't appear to wholly agree with whatever was happening; particularly a gentle-looking woman with dark hair braided down her front and a tall man whose long white hair fell across his face, who were both giving the old man less-than-happy looks. The man continued. "You will be having a slightly altered duel today. You will fight whoever steps forward to fight you. Do not hold back, do not worry for your opponent's sake. Treat this as a real battle. There is no time limit to this fight."

Toushirou looked on in confusion. What was going on? What was the purpose of removing the time limit? And why did that man—who Toushirou now recognized from a picture in the Academy as the Head Captain of the Gotei 13—have to tell him personally that the circumstances of this duel were changed? He had not missed that the Head Captain had called this a "duel" and not a "spar." They apparently wanted to see him fight as hard as he could, to treat this like he was really being attacked.

_Did my teachers tell them that I don't seem to try my hardest in training?_

And who did they expect him to fight? All of the trainers seemed to have left the grounds. Was he maybe going to duel with another student? The Head Captain had turned around and was heading back to the edge where the captains stood, attentive, expectant…

_No way. Absolutely no way._

Realization started to dawn on Toushirou, and he actually felt truly nervous for the first time. There was no way they could possibly be expecting—

"Ichimaru, you may begin." The old man's voice seemed to reach Toushirou through a long tunnel of shock as a tall, silver-haired captain with a disconcerting smile stepped forward and drew his sword.


	3. Chapter 3

This had to be a nightmare, Ukitake thought.

That, or Yamamoto had lost his mind. Completely lost his mind.

Usually, in a dream, you couldn't quite remember how it had started. You were just there, in the middle of it. Ukitake desperately thought back to that morning, trying to remember if he could actually recall it.

He had gotten up and eaten breakfast outside, watching the peach blossoms. He had received a hell butterfly reminding all captains that they should assemble at the training grounds closest to the Academy at noon for the graduation ritual.

No. The rest of the day had really happened, so this must be real too. But there was just no way.

Ukitake had seen a graduation ceremony every year since he became a captain, seen thousands of short duels, seen the raw determination in the students' faces as they fought to earn their place in the division that would mark the rest of their lives. But never had he seen anything like this.

There had been rumors, that in the graduating class this year was a prodigy of more potential than the Gotei 13 had ever seen. Of course, he had heard similar rumors many times, so he wasn't expecting anything truly spectacular. He went to the graduation as usual, stood silently as each of the students in turn had their duel, and selected those he had interest in to join his division, but he had not seen anyone of exceptional skill. He wasn't surprised—half of the rumors about amazing Academy students were started by the students themselves and had no real merit.

But when every student was done, Yamamoto had called them all to a short sort of meeting at the edge of the grounds. "There is a student waiting to graduate," he told the shocked captains, "whose teachers believe he cannot show his potential in a mere short duel with a trainer. Therefore, he will be fighting you."

The captains had exchanged alarmed looks. Unohana was the first to speak up. "But sir… you cannot possibly expect us to duel a student?"

"I do," Yamamoto said sternly. "Do not doubt that this student truly has excelled beyond the measure of any Academy graduate in history. I will line you up randomly. If the first captain to duel is defeated—and you all know the qualifications for a defeat in a formal duel—the next in line will immediately take their place." The captains exchanged skeptical looks at the thought of an Academy graduate defeating one of them, but Yamamoto continued seriously, "this is not a duel to the death, but do not treat it lightly. There is no need to use excessive force; this is a chance for this promising student to truly show his skills. But do not insult the student by refusing to show your true power."

He then proceeded to line them up—Ichimaru was first. The student had no chance. But, Ukitake supposed, this was as Yamamoto said: a chance for the student to show his true potential.

Despite Yamamoto's claim that he had lined them up randomly, Ukitake suspected that the old man had purposely put Ukitake, Kyouraku, and Zaraki at the end of the line. The Head Captain himself would not be fighting, and neither would Unohana, who Yamamoto told to be at the ready to handle any injuries at the end of the fight. Yamamoto also told vice-captain Matsumoto Rangiku to watch, but not to fight. Matsumoto's division was currently without a captain, and so the vice-captain came to the graduation ceremonies to select new members for her division.

When they were all settled, the Head Captain told the trainer to go and fetch the student, and stood waiting to announce the change to the graduate.

Ukitake's eyes widened when the door opened again, and in came the youngest graduate he had ever seen. The kid was short and rather skinny, with a long, elegant-looking sword strapped across his back—whether he preferred carrying his zanpakutou that way or not, it was evident he was not quite tall enough to carry the sword at his waist. He had bright silvery-white hair that was spiked upward slightly, though he still looked quite youthful. He approached the Head Captain, who spoke to him of the changed circumstances of his duel and went back to stand at the far wall, and Ichimaru stepped forward.

Though the kid—Hitsugaya—had come into the training grounds looking fairly confident, he now had a look of barely concealed terror. And he was right to look that way, Ukitake thought angrily, they obviously hadn't even told him that he wasn't going to have a normal graduation until about thirty seconds ago. This wasn't right. It would terrify even a seated officer in the Gotei 13 to suddenly be faced with dueling a captain, much less an Academy graduate who barely looked old enough to be wielding a pocket knife, much less a sword.

Well, Ukitake thought sadly, that was probably why the kid was here. It was likely he got little respect from his classmates, being so young, and Yamamoto probably wanted to use this to help give him that respect from his fellow division members. Ukitake had seen multiple shinigami who entered the Gotei 13 young, and they were harassed and underestimated constantly by everyone else. This was obviously to help prove something to everyone else. Maybe this kid seemed kind of fragile, and the teachers had wanted to protect him, so they went to Yamamoto.

But that wasn't right. Watching the kid now, as Ichimaru walked forward, Ukitake could see why he had caught everyone's eye. There was no doubt in Ukitake's mind that this Hitsugaya really was a prodigy, even without seeing him fight. The kid was watching Ichimaru with due wariness, but seemed to have pushed back any fear he felt upon being faced with a duel of this nature. Ukitake could see him looking up and down, noting everything about Ichimaru from the way he held his sword to the way he walked. Obviously the boy was very attentive to details. Good logic and reasoning skills. Probably good reflexes too.

And there was another thing that stirred Ukitake's curiosity—he couldn't sense any reiatsu from the kid. He must have quite a large reiatsu, as he was now facing Ichimaru in battle, but apparently he had become quite advanced at masking it. That wasn't something they taught at the Academy, because very few students could do it. Hitsugaya must have learned it himself.

Ukitake sighed. This probably wasn't going to end well. Ichimaru wasn't necessarily the strongest captain—though there was no doubt he was up there—but he had a talent for playing with his victims, and a sort of cruelty about the way he fought. Ukitake glanced at Hitsugaya. The kid looked battle-ready but reluctant, and still had not drawn his zanpakutou.

"Draw your sword, Hitsugaya Toushirou," said the Head Captain from the edge of the field, and the kid, without taking his eyes off Ichimaru, reached up and warily pulled the sword from his back. He held it out in front of him in a perfect, steady battle stance, but did not move. He seemed reluctant to start the fight; but that didn't necessarily mean he was afraid of it. Ukitake suspected the kid fought the same way Kyouraku did: let the opponent strike first, study the way they move and attack, and then fight back.

"You're quite the little one, aren't you?" Ichimaru asked, somewhat tauntingly. "Don't worry, I'll fight ya on even terms—no shikai unless you release yours." Ukitake could only see the back of Ichimaru's head, but he could tell just from the man's voice that he had that creepy smile plastered on his face.

Hitsugaya's expression hardened for just a fraction of a second, but quickly went back to wary and calculating. Ukitake was impressed—even shinigami who were not half as young as he often could not control their emotions that well in battle. The silence stretched on for another moment, Hitsugaya's eyes darting from Ichimaru's sword to his face and back again.

Then Ichimaru sprang forward.


	4. Chapter 4

The clang of steel on steel reverberated through the air for a few seconds as Toushirou mentally reeled. He couldn't believe how fast this captain, Ichimaru, was; he had barely gotten his sword up in time to block the hit. It was clear that this first strike was simply meant to begin the fight, as when the captain's sword had hit Toushirou's, he had multiple openings in the moment it took him to get over the shock of the captain's speed and power.

Only giving Toushirou enough time to get over the first hit, Ichimaru drew back and struck again, in a different place, lower and more to the left, aiming for Toushirou's non-dominant arm near the elbow. Toushirou knew from what he had observed in training that people tended to focus only on the shoulder and the wrist of their non-dominant arm as opposed to the arm as a whole; he hadn't had a lot of practice in correcting this mistake himself, because other students didn't seem to notice it and rarely attacked the place; but he was ready for Ichimaru to try it. He tilted Hyourinmaru and brought the hilt of the sword upward, driving the point toward the place where the captain was aiming and catching the other's sword mid-swing.

Though he had the opportunity here to push back, he knew it would have no effect, as certainly the captain could predict what he would do next, and he was not ready to attack back yet. Always observe the enemy first unless it's absolutely necessary that you fight from the beginning. And as Ichimaru seemed perfectly happy to attack relentlessly without caring whether Toushirou fought back, it gave Toushirou plenty of time to observe the way he fought.

The captain was very, very good, no doubt about it. His fighting style was smooth and relaxed, much different from the rather nervous and unconfident students Toushirou was used to sparring with. But everyone had their flaws, and in Toushirou's experience, the smaller and less noticeable the flaw, the more easily it can be exploited to the opponent's advantage, as it was less likely that others had done so in the past.

Ichimaru's steps were sure, the movements of his sword confident… and a little cocky. Toushirou figured this was partly due to the fact that the captain was battling a young Academy graduate that was not fighting back—none of the captains were probably taking this very seriously. But he also had the feeling this man was a little overconfident to begin with. Good. That would give Toushirou time to look for weaknesses in his technique without him noticing.

Toushirou focused in around the way the captain moved his sword. Never attacking in the same place more than once in five hits: a hit upward, near the head; as Toushirou brought his own sword up to counter it, the captain moved his down toward his waist and aimed for the spot that was momentarily open; Toushirou leaped backward out of the way and Ichimaru swung from the side. There could be a pattern in the way he moved his sword, but it would take another distraction to get at it.

Toushirou concentrated on the captain's feet even as he continued to dodge and block his sword. He was slowly pushing Toushirou back, always changing his footing so as to try to throw him off. But Toushirou noticed; his left foot always moved in a straight line forward. It was his right that moved back and forth as he placed each step precisely. Every movement was different, but he always used his right foot to change them.

Praying he would be fast enough to pull this off, as it was the only real element of surprise he could use, he waited for the right combination of circumstances. After a few more hits from the captain it came: Ichimaru started to shift from the right to the left foot, Toushirou hoping that instinct would have him placing it in the same straight line. Just as the left foot touched the ground—and thankfully, it was indeed in that line—Toushirou dived further to the left, temporarily out of the reach of the sword in the captain's right hand, which was coming from the left to the right in a wide swing toward where Toushirou's right arm had been a split second before. As he dove, he brought Hyourinmaru up toward the back of captain's right arm.

Ichimaru was obviously surprised by Toushirou suddenly taking the offensive, but he was a fast thinker too, and spun neatly, swinging his sword to drive Hyourinmaru away from his body and off to the side. Determined to make the hit work, Toushirou did not move to counter the captain's sword coming in from the side, but instead put all the energy of the swing into direct forward movement. As the captain's sword struck his, the momentum moved Hyourinmaru a little to the left, but the forward force could not be entirely dissipated, and there was a tearing sound from the fabric of Ichimaru's cloak as Hyourinmaru was pushed along his side, leaving a short but somewhat deep cut.

Toushiou did not stop to celebrate the small victory, as he had left his back and entire right side open in getting the hit on the captain. Luckily, Ichimaru drew back and paused for a moment, giving Toushirou time to move back a few paces and ready himself again.

Keeping the disconcerting smile on his face, Ichimaru lifted his right arm and looked down at the cut on his side, which was dripping a thin but steady trail of blood down his captain's robe. He looked back to Toushirou, smiling even wider. "Seems I underestimated ya', little one. I'm gonna hafta try a little harder if I don't want to get cut up."

Toushirou gripped Hyourinmaru a little harder, knowing he was about to pay for actually hitting the captain. _Hyourinmaru, I'm going to need your help for this, _he thought, and the dragon stirred in his mind; though he did not release his shikai, Hyourinamru seemed to wrap around his mind, adding the dragon's strength to his own. Everything became a little clearer suddenly, Toushirou knew it would help improve his attack speed, just as Ichimaru charged forward again.

This time, there was no slight hesitation, and the amount of power in the hit had increased drastically. Glad that he had asked Hyourinmaru for help, Toushirou quickly parried and used a short flash-step to move to the other side of the training grounds, giving himself time to prepare Hyourinmaru for an attack. As expected, Ichimaru followed in less than a second, as though he knew exactly what Toushirou had been planning. The captain brought his sword up even as he ended the flash step, driving the blade forward toward Toushirou's sword arm. Toushirou dropped and rolled to the side, swinging his own sword up toward Ichimaru's other arm, but the captain had already changed tactics mid-swing and was now aiming down toward Toushirou's ankle.

Taking a chance, Toushirou swung his foot forward, the captain's sword jut barely missing his ankle, and amazingly, he connected with the captain's left leg. Instead of feebly attempting to kick the man, Toushirou used the leverage to pull himself upward and across Ichimaru, swinging Hyourinmaru at his chest. The captain blocked the hit easily, however, and swung his sword just past Toushirou's head, who narrowly missed a nasty hit to the face as he jerked his head backward.

Smile growing even wider, the captain began the same tactic he had used at the beginning of the fight, relentlessly attacking Toushirou, who barely had time to block or dodge each hit, much less find an opening in which to strike. The captain's hits were much more powerful now, and even faster, yet Toushirou could tell that he wasn't using his full potential.

_He's playing with me._

The captain, who undoubtedly had more endurance and obviously had more experience than Toushirou, was making rather obvious and easy hits, occasionally throwing in a surprising one that Touhirou barley dodged. It was obvious that he could fight much more deviously than he was. But instead of using everything to beat Toushirou, the captain was simply waiting for him to slip up, to make some mistake—as he inevitably would before the captain ever did—so that he could use the opening to attack. He wanted Toushirou to be able to blame any hit the captain made on himself, to curse his own mistakes instead of simply knowing that the captain was better than him.

Toushirou didn't want to let that happen, but the only way not to would be to end the fight, and quickly. This was a duel, so he didn't need to injure the captain so badly that he couldn't get back up—which Toushirou suspected might be impossible for him anyway—he just had to knock him down for more than a second with a blow powerful enough to momentarily keep the captain from attacking. But the only way to do that would be in shikai form, and as Ichimaru had said, he would release his own shikai as soon as Toushirou did. That was bad. The captain was playing with him as it was, without even calling on his sword, and Toushirou was having to give it not quite his all, but significantly more energy than the captain. The only way to do this would be to somehow distract him enough to release his shikai and hit him all in one. If he could get the words for Hyourinmaru's release out, he could hit the captain with enough power in one blast to officially end the duel.

It was insane, but it was the only way. _Well,_ Toushirou thought, gritting his teeth, _they're all expecting me to lose anyway, I had might as well attempt it. I guess it'll show them what they want even if it doesn't work…_

Taking a deep breath, he used another flash-step to change places again, turning as he did so. Ichimaru followed, as expected, swinging his sword, but Toushirou did not bring Hyourinmaru up. Instead, he raised his left hand and shouted "Hadou 33: Soukatsui!"

Though the spell was weakened because Toushirou used it without the incantation, and because he did not put a lot of energy into it, it didn't matter; he wasn't aiming directly for Ichimaru. He tried to make it look like a feint, aiming slightly to the left. Normally, when one would do this, they would expect their opponent to dodge to the right and would use the momentary distraction to their advantage. But Toushirou was hoping the captain would see this and go left instead, thinking that Toushirou would have turned to the right to hit the dodging Ichimaru.

It was a moment of guessing for Toushirou, as neither could see in the momentary blast from the spell. Toushirou turned to the left and prepared Hyourinmaru, hoping desperately that Ichimaru had "figured out" the feint and was heading that way. As the spell cleared, Toushirou granted himself a half second of happiness as he saw the smirking form of the captain diving toward him from the left of the spell.

The captain's smile faltered for once as he saw that Toushirou was poised for attack, ready for him on the left of where the spell had been. Toushirou swung hard, and the captain was forced to leap backwards, momentarily leaving himself wide open to attack. Toushirou pushed his sword forward to make it look like he was going to take advantage of the opening, and in the two seconds that Ichimaru took to raise his own sword for defense, Toushirou shouted, "Soten ni Zase, Hyourinmaru!"

Before Ichimaru could do more than adopt a look of surprise, the ice dragon came spiraling out of the end of Toushirou's sword, hitting him squarely in the chest and driving him backwards into the wall surrounding the training grounds. He hit the wall with a loud crash, where he slumped to the floor with a small gasp, ice shards sticking up around him.

Toushirou looked on in his own surprise, amazed that he had actually beaten the captain. But before he could even get over the shock, another stepped forward from the line of captains in the back, a gargantuan man wearing a large battle helmet that disguised his face; he drew his sword, and Toushirou realized with trepidation that they intended to have him fight, with no breaks, as many captains as it took to bring him down.

Steeling himself for another battle, and knowing that now the captains would not hold back out of overconfidence like Ichimaru, Toushirou gripped Hyourinmaru and faced the new challenger.


	5. Chapter 5

Kyouraku Shunsui looked on in utter amazement as the little silver-haired graduate blasted Ichimaru into the wall with what looked like a dragon made of ice, and Komamura stepped forward. Though Komamura's face was hidden behind the battle helmet he wore, Kyouraku was sure he was showing the same shock as the other captains, who stood along the back wall, staring wide-eyed at the kid, who not only had just beaten Ichimaru in battle, but was uninjured, and didn't even appear to be tired.

Kyouraku wiped the look of shock off his own face and pulled his straw hat a little lower past his eyes, though still keeping the battleground in sight. It wasn't entirely surprising, he supposed. The kid was obviously powerful; though he had released his shikai, Kyouraku still sensed very little reiatsu from him; and with a shikai as powerful as the kid's, he had to have a pretty large reiatsu, which meant he was still concealing it even in shikai form.

Not only that, but the kid was quick, cunning, and intelligent. Kyouraku could see it in the way he moved and fought. The kid seemed to take the same attitude about fighting as he himself did, though Kyouraku was perhaps a little more relaxed about it: observe and then attack. When the fight with Ichimaru had started, the kid just blocked all of Ichimaru's attacks, but it had been clear that it was not because he was too overwhelmed to fight back. Even while avoiding getting hit, he had been carefully watching Ichimaru's sword, his footwork, everything, looking for patterns and openings. That was the mark of a true fighter and a great shinigami—though some captains, particularly a certain enormous spiky-haired one whose entire division thought the only good way to fight was just to charge recklessly into it no matter who they were facing, might disagree.

The kid was lucky to have gotten a hit on Ichimaru. Kyouraku gave credit to him for recognizing and taking advantage of Ichimaru's overconfidence, but nevertheless, he was lucky. Any other captain would not have posed that opportunity—well, maybe some of them would, as the kinder ones like Ukitake would be hesitant about attacking such a young kid. But after that, Ichimaru had taken a moment to taunt him, and from that moment, Kyouraku knew the captain's more cruel instincts would kick in.

Kyouraku rarely sparred with Ichimaru, but he had seen the ever-smiling man in battle, and though he never said anything, he didn't really care for the way Ichimaru taunted his opponents, particularly those who were weaker than him. If he was going to kill a weak hollow, he would always let it attack him first, acting like he was having difficulty and letting the opponent think he was weaker than he was; then he would very suddenly show his full power and dispose of the thing mercilessly. Kyouraku found it rather disgusting.

This attitude was shared by Ukitake, who stood next to him, and clenched his fists when Ichimaru sprang forward again, suddenly hitting the kid with a lot more force than before, though still taunting him by not using his full power. Kyouraku supposed this anger was accelerated by his friend's predisposition to liking children. The man was very kind to everyone, even enemies, and had an especially soft spot for younger people. Kyouraku heard his friend draw in sharp breath when Ichimaru narrowly missed the kid's face with a particularly vicious swing; he knew Ukitake already didn't approve of the way Ichimaru fought, and he certainly appeared to have a few things to say to Ichimaru when they were done.

But Kyouraku couldn't call the kid's hit lucky anymore when he used a spell in the thirties without the incantation to trick Ichimaru. He thought, as the kid obviously hoped Ichimaru would too, that it was a trick to get Ichimaru to dive away from the spell. That was something taught to more advanced students at the Academy, and he often saw it in their graduation sparring; though the trainers expected it, the students tended to use it to show cleverness and good use of resources in battle.

But the kid had shown something beyond typical cleverness as the spell cleared and everyone saw him poised to attack Ichimaru from the other side of the spell. Even from the back, it was obvious Ichimaru was surprised too, as he moved—no, practically _stumbled_—backwards, throwing up his sword to block the kid's next attack. Even in that split second, Kyouraku wondered if maybe the kid was planning to take advantage of the opening through more than just a simple attack, and he was right. With a rather graceful command, he released his shikai, which appeared to use reiatsu to create what looked like a dragon of water and ice. The dragon, or whatever it was, came out of the end of the kid's sword and hit Ichimaru head-on, smashing him back into the wall. Though Kyouraku knew the battle would have been far from over if it was real, that was enough to end the formal duel, and Komamura stepped forward.

The kid, Hitsugaya, looked surprised for a fraction of a second when Komamura drew his sword, and Kyouraku realized with slight pity that Yamamoto had never actually said that he would have to fight more than one captain. Though unspoken, it was obvious to Kyouraku—and apparently to Hitsugaya, who looked battle-ready but somewhat resigned—that they planned to have him fight until he lost. And when he lost, it probably wasn't going to be pretty. Especially since it was Komamura coming up next, who not only was _not_ one to underestimate his opponent, but also had a quite powerful—and rather painful-looking—zanpakutou.

Hitsugaya had skill, though. He might last a while. The same silence that the previous battle had started with stretched on to this one. Hitsugaya was clearly taking in everything about Komamura. Kyouraku knew immediately that size and speed would be at Hitsugaya's advantage in this one.

The kid sealed away his shikai. Kyouraku knew that Hitsugaya would not dare expect that he could use it as a surprise again; rather, he suspected Hitsugaya was trying to conserve reiatsu, as he now had an indefinitely long duel ahead. Kyouraku wondered what would happen if he beat Komamura. No, those thoughts were unnecessary… or were they? The kid had impressed everyone by now, but Kyouraku had the feeling he had even more potential than he had already shown. His victory against Ichimaru was partly due to a combination of luck that Ichimaru was so overconfident and good timing for the surprise of his shikai, but it was also skill. No one could deny he had some serious skill. Kyouraku peered down the line of captains—in which he was second to last—and saw Soi Fon standing at the other end, watching Komamura and Hitsugaya keenly.

Komamura had patience to the point of being maddening, however. After more than a minute of silence, in which Hitsugaya and the captain slowly paced in a circle, never increasing or decreasing the distance between them, the kid apparently decided that Komamura was not going to make the first move, because he attacked.

There was a slight flash of movement, and Kyouraku was barely able to follow the kid's flash-step—man, he was fast—before his sword connected with Komamura's. Though the blow was as fast and powerful as Ichimaru's first, Komamura did not seem surprised or move back as Hitsugaya had done. He pushed back with his own sword. Hitsugaya blocked it fairly easily and waited, but Komamura did not attack again.

The two kept up that same cycle for a minute—Hitsugaya would go for Komamura, the captain would block it and swing back, the kid would block that and wait, but Komamura never swung more than once. It was obvious neither of them were trying their hardest. After a minute or two of this, it became clear that Komamura did not plan to let Hitsugaya study him as he had Ichimaru; he would not attack the kid unless Hitsugaya attacked first. Finally, apparently becoming bored with this and deciding it was pointless, Hitsugaya began a series of rapid attacks. His sword moved in a constant flowing motion, making his swings seem almost like one large, continual attack. Kyouraku admired the fluidity of his swordsmanship, as well as the diversity of his attacks. He mixed not only rapid, sharp jabs of the sword with long swings from the side, but also varied the place he attacked, moving almost effortlessly from one side to the other with flash steps. He had Komamura turning constantly from side to side, defending every part of his body.

The large captain had somewhat of a natural advantage over the kid in being so enormous—Hitsugaya's attacks could not come quite at full speed and he never had absolutely sure footing because he had to leap into the air to reach anything but Komamura's legs. However, that advantage seemed to be outweighed by the advantages for Hitsugaya of being so small and quick. Though Komamura was fast, especially for such a big man, he could not flash around and attack the small Hitsugaya nearly as fast as the kid himself could.

There was constant motion between the two, Hitsugaya showing endurance as well as quick thinking. They were both fighting slightly more recklessly than in the previous duel with Ichimaru; after a few minutes, both of them had multiple small wounds. Hitsugaya was using everything he could to his advantage, including the fact that Komamura wore that battle helmet; combining that with the fact that he could conceal his reiatsu so well and was therefore harder to sense, the kid kept getting up and behind Komamura, swinging for the bigger man's shoulder or back. Though Komamura almost always managed to dodge these attacks—the exception was one particularly quick swing that had the captain's shoulder bleeding very slightly—he did it at a much slower pace than the others and didn't seem to have any time to attack back when Hitsugaya went for that spot.

Komamura swung pretty hard just as Hitsugaya landed back from a blocked jab at the captain's shoulder, and there was a fairly nasty sound as blood flew from the long, deep cut down Hitsugaya's forearm; however, the kid barely seemed to notice and took advantage of the opportunity. As Komamura paused slightly to draw back his sword after making contact with the kid, Hitsugaya turned his sword by the handle and shoved the blade underneath Komamura's outstretched arm, bringing it upward and slicing the other's arm even more dramatically than his own had been.

They kept the same pace of battle for another minute. Hitsugaya sustained a few more wounds, none quite as serious as the one on his arm, though there was blood flowing freely down one side of his face and leaving a splattered trail on the ground around Komamura as he leaped at the captain. Komamura was swinging his sword mostly with just his right arm, as his left was bleeding heavily and was nearly useless.

The intensity of the battle lessened somewhat for a moment as Hitsugaya slowed his pace of attack and both backed off a bit. Apparantly Komamura decided the time was right to change the circumstances, and brandishing his sword fiercely in front of him, he called upon it's shikai form, Tengen. The calculating look appeared on Hitsugaya's face once more as he looked Komamura up and down, searching for some indication of what his shikai did.

Komamura slashed his sword downward very suddenly. Hitsugaya looked very slightly confused, as Komamura was much too far away to hit him, and then, showing that quick intelligence that Kyouraku smiled at once again, Hitsugaya dived to the side just as an enormous arm wielding a gigantic version of the sword in Komamura's hand crashed down where he had been standing moments before.

Two more times, Komamura attacked with Tengen's giant arm, but Hitsugaya was a little too fast for it, flashing out of the way each time. Suddenly, Komamura threw a flashy kidou in Hitsugaya's path, forcing the kid to stop for a second in order to avoid being hit. The captain took advantage of the moment to bring Tengen's giant foot down on Hitsugaya.

Kyouraku heard Ukitake gasp slightly beside him, but suspected himself that Komamura had held back on purpose. The giant form of his shikai had not come down on top of the kid with as much force as Kyouraku had seen him use in the past; after all, Yamamoto had said, specifically, that this was not a fight to the death. This was about Hitsugaya, and allowing him to show his skills, not about killing him to show the captains' talent.

And he certainly was showing his skill, Kyouraku thought in slight surprise once more, as Komamura withdrew his shikai form's foot to see, far from a defeated kid, a wall of ice protecting Hitsugaya, who had released his own shikai again.

Hitsugaya leaped out of the crater left from Tengen's foot. The kid looked a little battered, breathing more heavily now, and was still bleeding, but amazingly, he didn't appear much more tired than he had when he had started with Ichimaru.

The kid's shikai form, which Kyouraku could now see was indeed a great ice dragon, circled its master loyally. The zanpakutou was obviously very powerful, and Hitsugaya, surprisingly for one so young, appeared to have quite a bit of control over it. Without saying anything, Hitsugaya moved forward and so did the dragon—apparantly they could communicate with just their minds, which was fairly advanced for an Academy graduate. Of course, this particular graduate had already proved he was advanced beyond any they had seen before, so it was not entirely unexpected.

Master and dragon moved forward in perfect synchronization, and as Hitsugaya brought his sword to Komamura once more, the dragon split off and attacked from the back. Komamura blocked Hitsugaya's swing fairly easily, but had to dive quickly to the side to avoid the ice dragon, which shot right past where Komamura had been moments before, made a loop around its master, and then headed for Komamura once more, who brought Tengen's enormous arm down in front of his just in time to block the dragon, which hit the arm and crashed into a massive formation of ice shards.

Hitsugaya drew his sword back and flash-stepped around to Komamura's back once more, who brought Tengen down once more on Hitsugaya, who barely moved out of the way in time and stumbled a tiny bit; giving Komamura the opportunity to raise him arm again, preparing to strike down on Hitsugaya, who could not avoid this hit and flung his arm up in front of his face—

Komamura stopped mid-swing and the giant Tengen's arm halted ten feet above Hitsugaya's head, flickered, and then disappeared. It quickly became apparent why: a thick, six-foot long shard of ice had impaled Komamura through the back and out his lower front side. Hitsugaya had not been throwing his arm up in a vain attempt to protect himself from Komamura's attack; he had been controlling the mass of ice, forgotten by Komamura, which had formed back into giant shards and flown toward the captain as he swung at Hitsugaya.

Komamura stayed that way for a second or two, and then Hitsugaya gingerly pushed his hand forward, and the ice shard retreated from out of Komamura. Blood splattered on the ground and Komamura fell forward. Hitsugaya got up and looked down at Komamura with a mixture of surprise—no doubt at his second victory against a captain—and horror, at what he had done. But Kyouraku knew the wound was not incredibly serious. In a normal battle, Komamura would have gotten up again, but the duel was lost, and so the captain stayed on the ground so as not to upset the wound, which may not have been life-threatening, but was certainly painful.

Hitsugaya didn't have much of a chance to look worried though, as the moment Komamura had fallen, Soi Fon stepped forward, looking menacing.


	6. Chapter 6

Toushirou had only a second to get over the amazement and the horror of what he had just done. _I beat two captains… I'm dueling the captains… and I'm _winning_… but what did I do to him? _He stared down in shock at the prone form of the giant captain. He had acted partly on instinct, to protect himself from the blow that was coming, he hadn't meant to deal the captain such a serious injury… but the captain was breathing and moving small amounts. Obviously he hadn't been that badly injured, but he had lost the duel, so he just didn't want to aggravate the wound…

He had been lucky in the first place to have beaten the last captain. It just happened to be that Toushirou had a natural advantage over that man, as he was small and fast. The man's shikai was extremely powerful, but didn't work as well in an open space like this where Toushirou could easily dodge it. He knew he had gotten lucky when the captain had forgotten about Hyourinmaru behind him, and he shuddered to think what might have happened if Hyourinmaru had not been in that exact spot. He had made a stupid mistake, stumbling like that, and left himself wide open. There was no way he could have dodged that attack.

And though he did his best to ignore the wounds he had received in that fight, he could not deny that they were there. He had been more reckless in that fight; he supposed he panicked because he could no longer use his shikai as a surprise to take the captains off guard, and because this captain did not seem to have any obvious weaknesses except his larger size, whereas Ichimaru had been very obviously overconfident, not taking the fight seriously, and so had left himself open to attack.

As he was thinking this, the next captain stepped forward. This one looked much more serious compared to Ichimaru, or even to the last man, whose face was hidden, and in contrast to that last captain, she was considerably smaller. She was barely taller than Toushirou, and just as thin. But Toushirou wouldn't be foolish enough to let appearances deceive him. Even as he thought this, the woman placed her hand over her sword and said calmly, "Jinteki Shakusetu, Suzumebachi." The sword glowed and shortened, and when the glow faded, Toushirou could see that the glow had formed a gold and black gauntlet on her right hand with a golden blade-like object on her middle finger. So she had progressed immediately to shikai. There was no way he was going to beat her if he put his own away. Heck, he probably wouldn't beat her as it was. Well, this would likely be his last battle, but he had done more than they expected already, he was sure. And he wasn't going to give up now. It wasn't definite that he would lose this. And he couldn't let that affect how he fought her.

The woman did not move for a moment, and Toushirou seized the opportunity to take her in. She was small, like him, and petite. Her shikai form was also very small, compact. Clearly her strength was geared toward stealth and speed, rather than sheer force like the last captain's. Toushirou was in trouble; there went his advantage.

He only had enough time to think that before she flashed to him, and _oh man_, he was right. She was even faster than he was, and just as maneuverable. Within less than two seconds, she struck him on the chest with the stinger-blade on her finger that was her shikai.

It didn't hurt, especially compared to the wound on his arm that the last captain had dealt, which was still bleeding. In fact, it hadn't seemed to do any damage at all. As Toushirou leapt backward out of the way of another strike and slashed Hyourinmaru in front of him to put a bit of ice between him and the woman, he tried to think of what the strike had done. It clearly had hit its intended mark—the small form of her shikai was hard to block with a sword and she had had a clear shot at him. His breath caught as he had a sudden, alarming thought: _poison._ Looking down at his chest somewhat frantically, Toushirou saw that the hit had left a large mark in the shape of what appeared to be a butterfly. So it probably wasn't poison. _But… what is it?_

The captain appeared out of flash step behind him and he whipped around, but not fast enough—she hit him once again, this time on the right arm, and out of the corner of his eye he saw another mark appear there. He sent a few small ice shards and a flashy kidou her way, forcing her to flash-step out of the way again and back up a few paces; he took the opportunity to look down at his chest. The original mark was still there, along with the one now on his arm, which was identical to the original. So the marks weren't a countdown to something; it didn't seem to matter how many he had, he thought, eliminating that possibility of her shikai's ability from his mind. Glancing again at the mark on his arm, he wondered suddenly what would happen if she hit that same place again.

He looked up and the woman was in his face once again; he quickly brought Hyourinmaru up and jabbed it toward her head, cursing himself for becoming distracted; she snapped her head backward and out of the way, and ducked down, swinging out at Toushirou with her leg. Toushirou leaped high into the air and flipped over her crouched form, landing neatly on the other side of her and sending the ice dragon her way. Hyourinmaru wrapped around her petite form like a snake, and she wriggled somewhat pointlessly for a second. Toushirou raised his sword and pointed it at her, knowing there was no way this could be the end of the fight. Sure enough, a moment later, there was a bright glow around the captain and the dragon form of Hyourinmaru broke into a hundred shards of ice as she let out a concentrated burst of reiatsu to break herself away from her captor.

They began another concentrated battle, leaping at each other rather ferociously. This fight was even more fast-paced than the one with the last captain, and now the woman was attacking him with both the speed that Ichimaru had had and the determined power of the last captain. The woman got two more hits on Toushirou with her shikai, one on his right leg, and one on the back of his left shoulder. Toushirou discovered that although he could not very effectively block her small weapon with his sword, he could strike at her "sword" arm as she reached for him, and because of the nature of her smaller weapon, she could not block him, and was forced to pull back. They kept this up for a while.

But no matter how much Toushirou moved and changed technique, he could not seem to hit the captain. She twisted and turned away from every strike of his, and constantly moved, her footing as precise and sure as possible. They both leaped, flipped, and turned fluently; Toushirou thought momentarily, insanely, that if someone didn't know they were fighting, they might think the two were doing a fast-paced dance. They had moved around the entire training grounds at least four times by now; she was driving him back continually. He could gain no ground against her.

However, when Toushirou faltered and accidentally left his front side open to her, she… hesitated.

_What?_

She had been driving her weapon toward him, a concentrated and determined expression on her face, when suddenly her eyes had widened just the tiniest bit, and she had stopped the movement of her hand. Toushirou was too surprised at her hesitation to take advantage of the moment, and they both sprang backward for a second. Immediately, the woman dived back at him, acting like nothing had happened. But Toushirou was thinking; what had made her hesitate? And he was pretty sure he knew the answer. She had been about to hit him in the chest; she would have hit that mark for a second time. Toushirou wasn't entirely sure what would happen if she hit one of those marks again, but he suspected, from the precise and deadly quality to the captain's movements, that it might kill him.

They continued to parry as before, Toushirou striking at her hand to get her to withdraw when she got too close, though if she got close to a place where she had already hit him, she practically drew back on her own will, obviously determined not to hit him twice in the same place. She was obviously a fairly vicious fighter, like an assassin. As she turned once, he spotted the kanji for two on the back of her haori, and remembered hearing that the second division specialized in stealth and assassination, so it wasn't surprising that this was their captain, and it practically confirmed Toushirou's suspicions that if she hit one of those marks again, he would die.

However, despite her hesitancy in attacking him, she was still winning the fight, by a lot. Toushirou was beginning to tire, and he couldn't seem to do anything against her, yet more of those deadly marks were appearing on him every minute. It couldn't keep going on like that, or Toushirou would just wear down and lose right there.

Throwing another flashy kidou at her, Toushirou prepared a technique he hadn't really used much before, and hadn't had time to practice much, but it was about the only thing he could think to use against her at that point. He drew on Hyourinmaru's energy and wrapped the zanpakutou's spirit and power around the sword itself. The sword became encased in ice and glowed slightly with the power from the spirit.

As the woman moved forward to him again, he charged to meet her. Though she didn't show any surprise, she had to move slightly to avoid being hit, which was a change, as she had been simply driving Toushirou back for the last few minutes. Toushirou brought his sword up and swung at her left side as she reached for him with her right arm. She twisted out of the way, but she could not entirely avoid the hit, and though Hyourinmaru barely grazed her side, the area immediately froze over, ice spreading out over her side like a poison. Instead of attacking again, the captain drew back and paused for a moment, no doubt considering what had happened.

Toushirou didn't smile or show any emotion at all, but he felt a moment of relief as he saw that the technique had worked. In imitation of this captain's own shikai form, and to make his power more compatible with hers, he had put all of Hyourinmaru's power into the blade of the sword, wrapping ice around it and sending strong waves of Hyourinmaru's power out from the blade. When it had made contact with the captain, Hyourinmaru had let some of that condensed power flow from the blade into the wound itself, allowing the ice to spread and hopefully to slow the captain's movements.

The captain sprang forward once again, reaching out to strike with her weapon. Toushirou pushed his sword toward her hand, and she pulled back once more. This continued for a few minutes; Toushirou was no longer being pushed back, but he wasn't winning, either. The captain clearly had more endurance than him, and if this continued, Toushirou would still end up losing just from exhaustion. He gritted his teeth. He needed to end this, but there was only one way he could think to do that, and that was a last resort.

The captain appeared to have noticed his weariness, because she very suddenly switched tactics: she began attacking him even faster, flashing from side to side so rapidly that he could barely dodge. He tried to match the increased pace, and managed to get two more hits on her, which froze over, but she fought against the slightly restricted movement by hitting him even harder and faster, and she managed to get four more hits on him.

This wasn't going well. Even if she was trying to be hesitant, more than half his body seemed to have those strange marks on it now. He was going to end up dead if he didn't do something soon. With an internal sigh, he readied himself for using his last resort.

_This isn't going to be pleasant._

As she dived at him one more time, Toushirou took Hyourinmaru out of the condensed mode and swung in a wide arc, filling the space between them with ice. She stopped for a moment and he used the second to leap backward, holding Hyourinmaru tightly in front of him and taking a deep breath.

"Bankai."


	7. Chapter 7

Soi Fon didn't stand a chance.

The boy likely could have struck down any one of them in that moment, even Yamamoto himself, as they all seemed to be paralyzed by shock. Even Byakuya was stunned, and that didn't happen often.

No first year Academy graduate—not even any _unseated officer _in the entire history of the Gotei 13 had ever achieved bankai. Yet here it was in front of them.

Ice was everywhere. Soi Fon had apparently dropped all thought of the fight at the single word from the boy, arms hanging limply at her sides. Byakuya had never seen the woman take such an undignified stance in battle; but he was not one to talk at the moment, as he seemed to be stuck in place as well and could do little more than stare. Soi Fon barely had time to bring her hands up in front of her face before she was flying through the air as though being carried by ice fairies. Byakuya pulled himself out of his shock and stepped forward as Soi Fon hit the wall with a crash, just like Ichimaru had. Byakuya looked forward, through the dissipating cloud of ice and snow, and registered that it was a lot darker outside than it had been that morning—dark clouds had gathered overhead, and it was snowing. The boy could control the weather. Impressive.

Said child emerged from the ice cloud caused by the release of his bankai. He seemed to have merged with his sword—enormous ice wings rose up out of his back, and ice coated his arms and legs, ending in clawed hands and feet, protecting him and no doubt adding the zanpakutou's power to his. Byakuya noted that the boy still seemed to be disguising his reiatsu, as well. However astonishing the bankai may be, though, he could tell that the boy had barely, and likely recently, achieved it. There were what looked like three ice "flowers" floating behind him, and they were disappearing fast—two of the twelve petals were gone already just from the release of the bankai. He supposed they were a sort of countdown to when the child's bankai would fade.

Normally, Byakuya could have easily beaten this child's unsteady bankai with just his shikai, particularly since the boy was already wounded and breathing heavily from the last three fights he had endured. However, this battle was supposed to be letting the boy show his power. To give the child credit, Byakuya stepped forward and dropped his sword, releasing his own bankai.

The giant swords of Senbonzakura rose up on either side of them, and Byakuya broke them into the thousands of tiny blades that formed a swirling mass, which he controlled with his hands; this was a duel, not a massacre. The child had gotten the opportunity at this point to show his power and skill, but he would not last much longer. One of the three ice flowers was now gone. Byakuya would let the boy keep his pride and dignity by finishing him quickly instead of just wearing him out.

He stepped forward and raised his hand. The mass of petal-like blades flew menacingly toward the boy and engulfed him before he even had time to respond. Byakuya held back; he could feel the blades making contact with ice, but also with the boy, who could not seem to respond. None of his blades pierced too deeply, but the combined force of them would soon be enough to bring the child down, and the duel would be over…

Out of nowhere, there was a massive blast of reiatsu practically to match that of Zaraki, who wandered about cluelessly with no idea how to control his reiatsu, making smaller shinigami collapse. Some of the captains along the far wall, clearly not expecting this, backed up; even Byakuya staggered slightly. A mixture of ice shards and tiny blades exploded from around the boy, clearing the air. Byakuya stared in amazement once more, though not stunned out of movement like before.

The boy had pushed everything away from him in one enormous blast of reiatsu, which he now seemed to be keeping up. He looked significantly worse for wear; there were innumerable tiny cuts all over him and he was dripping blood onto the ground; but he didn't seem to notice, as he was clearly concentrating on his bankai.

Byakuya frowned. The ice flowers that floated behind the boy were gone, and yet his bankai seemed steadier than before. The child must have been repressing the need for the countdown by letting his bankai form draw directly on his reiatsu. That was dangerous, and a desperate move. But Byakuya could sense the pride involved in the action: the boy would not simply be beaten down like that. He was going to stand and fight with everything he had, and prove that he could fight back.

Byakuya supposed it had to do with his past, at the Academy, and maybe even in Rukongai. The child was small, yet both powerful and intelligent. Byakuya knew the type, and they were almost always teased by their own, and ignored or seriously underestimated by those older than them. At the Academy, he was certainly ostracized for being what he was, and he must have felt a certain sense of loss as well, as there was no one at his level. The kid must have really done something special to achieve bankai; the trainers didn't ever talk to students about that, much less try to teach it to them. Many of the teachers didn't even have bankai themselves.

Growing up, this child must have endured a constant battle to catch the eye of someone older and better, who could put him where he really belonged. This was his one chance to do that; he was sparring against the captains. This was his chance to prove everything he was, to show all that he had, in the hopes that they would actually take him seriously. It wasn't just the pride of the fight involved here. It was the boy's entire life, and how people would interact with him from now on.

Byakuya nodded almost imperceptibly and faced the boy. He could understand that, though he hadn't necessarily experienced it himself. He would make this a battle worth seeing for the other captains, and allow the child to show whatever it was he wanted to prove to them. He leaped just as the boy did, and they met each other in a glorious clash of ice and blades, and began a battle more furious than any of the others.

The way Soi Fon and the boy had leaped around each other was nothing compared to this. Byakuya had expected to move his bankai form around, striking at the child easily but always withdrawing to give the boy enough time to strike back, allowing him to show his skills. But Byakuya found himself actually fighting the boy—though of course, in a real battle, he would have changed Senbonzakura into a more deadly or dangerous form. He moved his hands constantly, leaping from place to place. He rarely even caught glimpses of the boy himself through walls of ice and masses of pink petal-blades; he relied on his bankai to locate the boy and strike at him.

The fight got even faster as time went on. Byakuya would move his blades in from around both sides, certain he had trapped the boy, and yet a moment later, there would be ice in his face and he would have to bring the blades up as a shield. The boy did not seem to have lost any of his quickness or maneuverability in this larger bankai form; indeed, the ice wings folded and opened and twisted as efficiently as if they were a part of his body that he regularly used.

Though the child's bankai was somewhat incomplete and unsteady—minding the fact that right now, he was using a desperate method to keep it during the fight—he did have an amazing connection with his zanpakutou. The two worked flawlessly together; if Byakuya would go for an opening that the boy didn't seem to see, ice would form in a shield in front of the boy without him even doing anything. Of course, the same happened between Byakuya and Senbonzakura, but they had had decades of practice together. This kid wasn't anywhere near their age. He had an incredible natural connection with his zanpakutou.

However, though the reiatsu coming from the boy remained strong, Byakuya sensed that his bankai was drawing too much of it from his body. This was becoming dangerous. The boy's zanpakutou would probably end the battle itself if it got to the point that it might kill the boy, but that was cutting it close, and Unohana would have the captains cowering in fear if they let an Academy graduate nearly kill himself dueling them; she already didn't approve of the duel in the first place. This needed to end, quickly. Byakuya put more power into his blades, attacking slightly harder than before, beginning to drive the boy back, though he had to admit that the ice was coming practically as close to him as his blades were coming to the boy.

Byakuya leaped, and the boy was gone. The flash step was incredibly fast—fueled, no doubt, by the power from his zanpakutou, and Byakuya couldn't even see it. The boy was at his side in an instant, swinging his icy sword. Senbonzakura's blades swarmed up and around their master, protecting him, but the boy flashed to the other side as they dissipated. Byakuya quickly used some of the blades to form an actual sword, just in time to counter the boy's own. Steel met steel as ice and blades swirled around both of them. The attacks were fast, leaving no time for either to come up with strategies; they would simply attack relentlessly, blocking the other's and then pushing forward, hoping to exploit a momentary opening, only to have their sword blocked again and the other's swinging toward them.

Byakuya swung hard from the left; he should end this before the boy used too much of his reiatsu. The boy had more than proved his skills. As though sensing his intentions, the boy leapt backward, out of the way of Byakuya's sword, which he allowed to dissolve back into petal-blade form. Suddenly there was ice at his shoulder; the boy had managed to bring up the tail of the ice dragon form surrounding him and hit Byakuya's arm, which instantly froze over and became nearly useless. Byakuya brought a few shards of Senbonzakura toward him and broke the ice apart, freeing his arm.

This repeated a few more times; the boy would get through an opening and freeze some part of Byakuya, who would use his own bankai to break the ice apart; the child must have been getting fairly desperate to slow Byakuya's movements.

Byakuya leaped once more, and realized that he had left his left side open; the boy flashed to his right and swung his sword. Assuming that the boy would try to flash to the left and attack, Byakuya fortified both sides of himself with Senbonzakura and attacked the boy simultaneously, but the boy leapt back, leaving himself open to the attack.

There was a split second in which Byakuya realized what was happening, and smiled grimly.

After all that, he had underestimated the child.

As Senbonzakura flew toward the boy, the ice wings rose just in time and covered him, shielding him a tiny bit from the attack, but they were weak.

The power was concentrated into the ice shards that littered the field from earlier, when Byakuya had used senbonzakura to break apart ice on his body.

He had foolishly forgotten them, or perhaps assumed that because the dragon had merged with the boy in bankai form, he could not control broken shards like that.

It was the same thing that had brought down Komamura.

He was foolish.

It was too late to move as the massive ice dragon rose behind him and attacked.

The boy had certainly proven himself.

Byakuya did not begrudge him.


	8. Chapter 8

Ukitake could see that Byakuya had been hesitating throughout the fight, not wanting to seriously injure the kid. But he couldn't have imagined that Hitsugaya would actually win.

All the captains watched with amazement as, seemingly in slow motion, captain Kuchiki dove toward Hitsugaya; as the giant ice dragon formed from the shards scattered around the training grounds and rose behind the captain, who didn't turn in time; and as the dragon charged, sinking its enormous fangs into Byakuya's back, who fell to the ground, bleeding heavily.

The next captain came up the line and started to pass Ukitake on the way to where the kid stood: Kurotsuchi, a rather evil grin on his face, regarding the boy as Ukitake had seen the scientist regard other "experiments," and Ukitake threw out an arm in front of the other captain.

"What?" Kurotsuchi snarled at him, but Ukitake stared at Hitsugaya, and Kurotsuchi turned that way too. The kid had stood still for a few seconds as Byakuya fell; the ice dragon that had brought down the captain faded. Very suddenly, the ice flowers that had first appeared above Hitsugaya's head reappeared, and all at once, shattered; his reiatsu dropped alarmingly fast, the ice wings surrounding him crumbled, his sword hit the ground, and he collapsed forward rather gracefully, unconscious.

Kurotsuchi grumbled, but Unohana hurried forward to where the other three captains were laying, surrounded by a small medical dispatch team; when had they gotten there? Ukitake had been too intent on the fight to notice the arrival of the others; he hadn't even seen them take Komamura off the field as the battle between the kid and the second division captain raged. Now he noticed as two fourth division members, throwing curious glances at the still form of the kid on the field, rushed forward to take captain Kuchiki off.

Yamamoto held out his arm to stop Unohana the same way Ukitake had stopped Kurotsuchi. "Captain Unohana, I trust your subordinates to take care of the captains here; they do not appear to be in any real danger. Please concentrate your efforts on young Hitsugaya."

Unohana looked rather relieved at the order, Ukitake thought, as she hurried forward to where Hitsugaya lay, far too still… that couldn't be good. The rest of the captains stood in place, still looking rather shocked, and Ukitake felt particularly useless, as he couldn't do anything to help. He was worried about the kid and watched as Unohana turned him onto his back. Her hands glowed with some sort of kidou as she examined him; her look of concern became deeper and she quickly scooped the kid up in her arms and hurried toward the back door, which was closest to the path back to the fourth division. She stopped at where the captains lay to give a few hushed orders to her medical team, and then disappeared through the door with Hitsugaya in her arms.

Ukitake jumped slightly as Kyouraku laid a hand on his shoulder; he had been watching Unohana too intently to notice that Yamamoto had apparently dismissed the remaining captains. The captains were filing through the door; Kyouraku gave Ukitake his usual carefree smile and led the way out the door. As they passed, Ukitake glanced down at where the four captains were being treated. Ichimaru was sitting up and merely looked as though he had a headache; Ukitake couldn't see Komamura's face, but he was laying down as two healers worked on the wound in his stomach; Soi Fon was leaning against the wall like Ichimaru, looking tired but otherwise uninjured; Byakuya was laying on his side as three pairs of healers' hands glowed over the wounds on his back—his eyes were closed, but he was obviously conscious, as he was talking quietly to the healers.

Ukitake smiled to himself—the kid had really made an impression—and headed through the door and back to his own division, where he found his two third seats bickering over who got to introduce him when he came back. They ended up simultaneously shouting Ukitake's name to the surprised division members; Ukitake greeted them, showed the new ones the barracks, and settled down in his room with some tea. He was amazed that it had only been a few hours since he had chosen his new division members; it seemed like a week had passed, or maybe a few years.

Later that evening, though he honestly hadn't been consciously thinking of it, Ukitake found himself treading the path to the fourth division while on an evening walk. As he went to push open the door, it was pulled open from the other side and captain Kuchiki appeared in the doorway, looking (though of course, the proud captain would never admit it) rather annoyed at being kept there so late for such 'trivial' injuries. The captains nodded to each other, and Ukitake wondered if Byakuya knew why he was there; it wasn't an uncommon sight to find the white-haired captain haunting Unohana's division, as she mixed him herbal medicines and took him there when he was having particularly bad attacks from his illness. However, today he was feeling perfectly fine. He had just come to see how Hitsugaya was doing; after all, it had been a fierce duel and the kid hadn't looked so good afterward.

As he wandered the halls, wondering which room Hitsugaya was in, he heard a soft and familiar voice behind him. "I'm not surprised to see you here, captain Ukitake."

He turned to see Unohana giving him her usual motherly smile and an approving look. "So I guess you know why I'm here."

The healer smiled gently. "Well actually, while you're here, I have something for you. But as for the real reason; young Hitsugaya went through a lot today, physically and mentally, and it took a toll on him. His physical injuries were not that great, but he seriously overtaxed his reiatsu, especially pushing himself that far in bankai form." Upon seeing Ukitake's alarmed look, she continued, "he'll be fine, but it might take a little while. He just needs a lot of rest. I'm not currently letting anyone in to see him; I want him to have as much peace as possible as he recovers."

Ukitake sighed and looked a the floor in disappointment. "I'm sure that's for the best." He figured as long as Unohana said the young graduate—well, now he was a full shinigami—was fine, it was okay…

Ukitake had a sudden thought and turned his head to Unohana again. "Hey, has Yamamoto said what they're going to do with him yet?"

Unohana looked at Ukitake seriously. "He's taken personal control over the decision of where to put Hitsugaya."

"What?"

"Yes, we were all a bit shocked, though it shouldn't be too surprising, considering what we saw today. But whatever Yamamoto's deciding, it must be very serious."

"What makes you say that?" Ukitake asked.

"I went to see him earlier, to report on Hitsugaya's condition as well as that of the other captains, and captain Kurotsuchi and captain Zaraki were there; they appeared to be arguing about something."

Ukitake had little doubt about what they were arguing over.

Unohana continued. "Yamamoto ended it as soon as I walked in the room. What he said was that Hitsugaya's fate was entirely up to him as the Head Captain, and that the captains were not to contest his decision, whatever that may turn out to be."

Ukitake gaped. "That does sound really serious."

Unohana nodded. "It's very unusual for Yamamoto-sensei to tell the captains they can't protest a decision of his. Usually differing opinions are at least heard, if not considered."

They had reached the room where medicines and herbal remedies were mixed. Unohana handed Ukitake a small pouch of a medicine to mix into his tea with a smile. "Here you are, captain."

"Thank you." Ukitake stored the medicine in an inside pocket of his haori and turned to leave. He was still worried about Hitsugaya, but it was best to leave it to the healer. She knew what was best for him, after all. He was at the door when Unohana spoke once more from behind him.

"Captain Ukitake, if you would like, you can be the one to take Hitsugaya out of here when I release him; I'm sure he'll need someone to show him around and take him back to wherever he'll be staying."

Ukitake stopped and smiled. "Thank you," he said quietly, and Unohana smiled back knowingly. Ukitake turned and left the fourth division, feeling a little better about the young shinigami, and wondering what in the world Yamamoto had planned for him.


	9. Chapter 9

Toushirou woke feeling strangely dizzy and extremely weak. It took a few minutes to remember what had happened; he blinked slowly up at the ceiling, trying to figure out why he felt so tired. Then it clicked into place; he was not in his own bed. He was no longer at the Academy. He had gone to his graduation ceremony, and fought… fought the _captains_. He would have bolted upright if he could, but his body felt like it weighed a ton.

"You've made quite an impression, young one." Toushirou started at the soft voice; he hadn't realized there was someone else in the room. He managed to turn his head to the side and saw the gentle-looking captain with dark hair braided down her front, who had seemed to disagree with his duel against the captains back a million years ago, or so it seemed. She must be the healer captain. The woman looked kind and motherly, and Toushirou felt calmed just being in her presence.

He swallowed painfully—his throat was very dry, he must have been asleep for quite a while—but found that he could still talk, though admittedly with a rather weak and scratchy voice. "How long have I been here?"

The captain looked down at him with something akin to pity in her eyes; she seemed reluctant to tell him. Finally, she said softly, "a little over seven days."

Toushirou gaped at her. It wasn't that surprising, considering how weak he felt, that he had been here a week; rather, what was disturbing him was that he couldn't seem to remember what would have caused such a weakness. He remembered the last man stepping forward as he had released his newly achieved bankai. He had felt the power pulling away from him; he couldn't hold the form for long because he was so new to it. He remembered Hyourinmaru warning him in his mind.

"_You can't last for long like this."_

"_I'll make it last, Hyourinmaru. I have to."_

"_I cannot help you if you cannot hold this form."_

"_Then I'll hold it, as long as you can help from there."_

"_Toushirou…"_

"_If I can hold the form, can you lend me your power?"_

"…_Yes."_

…So that's what he had done. He didn't remember much from that time. His bankai was fading fast and the only thing he could think to do was to pour all of his reiatsu into it. He hadn't really thought about the consequences of doing so. Hyourinmaru had pretty much taken over from there, as Toushirou was focused entirely on maintaining his bankai form so that he could continue to use the dragon's power in the fight. Toushirou saw the last captain as though through a haze; he would think about what he wanted to do, whether it was dodge, or strike, or simply move, but he couldn't seem to make himself do it, so Hyourinmaru would do it for him. He barely remembered it, but he was sure the last captain had fallen—and then Hyourinmaru had let go, and without the dragon's added power, Toushirou couldn't hold onto bankai, and the world had gone dark.

The healer was watching him shrewdly. "Do you remember what happened?"

He looked up at her, still feeling tired and weak, but his mind was clearer now. "Yes."

She smiled again. "You've certainly proven your skills, young one. You did what was necessary and even more. Now, you should rest; that was quite a dangerous thing you did, letting your reiatsu fuel your bankai indefinitely." Though the woman said every word kindly, the last sentence had a sort of eerie commanding quality to it, and Toushirou found himself immediately predisposed to do exactly as she said without complaint. Besides, he still felt rather weak and tired. He probably should get a bit more rest.

The healer moved her hands, which were glowing with a kidou, down Toushirou's body. He felt the kidou pass through him, and shuddered slightly. He had read about the feelings caused by different kidou in his studies; this one was a sensing kidou of some sort. "Your reiatsu is recovering surprisingly quickly," she said as she examined him, "though it's not nearly at the level it was before. You should rest here for at least another five or six days."

Toushirou didn't like being confined to one place, and especially not to bed, but he really did need the rest, and as he currently didn't have any place to stay, he...

He jerked his head around to face the captain once again, eyes widening. "What happened at the end of the fight? Which division am I in?"

The woman looked down into his eyes as she ended the kidou and sat back. "Head Captain Yamamoto is making the decision personally, but he has not yet revealed what that decision is."

Before Toushirou could respond, the door burst open and a rather large and menacing-looking shinigami came rushing into the room. "Captain Unohana," he said, making a short formal bow to the woman and looking to Toushirou, "I have received a direct order, top priority, from Head Captain Yamamoto that he," he pointed at Toushirou, "is immediately required at the Head Captain's office."

The healer, Unohana, looked up at the shinigami calmly, but adopted the same slightly frightening expression she had used earlier to persuade Toushirou to remain where he was. "Hitsugaya-san is currently my patient, and needs a considerable amount of rest before he is ready to go anywhere. I would appreciate it if you could stop disturbing the peace in my hospital."

The shinigami gulped and looked like he would like nothing better than to flee from the room, but repeated, "The Head Captain said this was urgent. You can carry him if you have to, but he needs to be in the Head Captain's office as soon as possible. In fact, that might be best, as the Head Captain also said your presence was required, Captain."

Unohana looked disgruntled but dropped the frightening expression and the shinigami relaxed slightly. "I'm sorry about this, Hitsugaya-san, but if the Head Captain has ordered you to be in his office, it's probably best that you are there." Toushirou nodded, slightly worried; were they perhaps going to reprimand him for fighting so seriously, for wounding their captains? But the Head Captain had told Toushirou to fight his hardest, to treat it like a real battle.

Toushirou barely shifted as Unohana gently lifted him into her arms; he felt slightly ridiculous being carried like a child by the captain, but was still too tired to care much, and lay rather weakly against the healer as she made the trek to the first division, following the messenger shinigami. Toushirou noticed the sky was a deep pink and purple; it was nearing sunset.

They entered the Head Captain's office to find the captains all lined up, sitting on either side of the floor, with the Head Captain front and center—Toushirou's feeling of embarrassment about being carried in while looking so weak increased exponentially. He watched the captains as they passed, expecting them, particularly the ones he had beaten in battle, to be looking at him in anger or disgust, but they seemed to be watching him with curiosity, and… something else, that he couldn't quite place. The exception was a strange-looking captain wearing a significant quantity of face paint and the oddest headgear he had ever seen, who was looking rather sulky and resentful.

Unohana quietly placed Toushirou on the ground at the other end of the line of captains, so he was facing the Head Captain, and took her own place in the line of captains, between the smaller woman that Toushirou had fought third and the tall, noble-looking man who had been Toushirou's last opponent. Thankfully, Toushirou was feeling stronger already than when he had woken and did not have to work very hard to remain kneeling on the floor. He bowed respectfully to the Head Captain but did not speak; he was somewhat at a loss for words. However, the Head Captain seemed to think that Toushirou knew exactly why he was here, and immediately spoke up.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou," he began, and even his voice seemed to carry a wisdom and power that practically made Toushirou flinch—luckily, he repressed the instinct. "In your duel with some of our highest ranked members, you have shown not only superior fighting capability and endurance, but logic and reasoning skills beyond that of most officers, as well as top-level awareness and instinct in battle. In addition, your teachers and mentors from the Academy report unwaveringly that you have consistently displayed intelligence, creativity, determination, discipline, and maturity that is unparalleled. You have shown what is necessary to contend with the top level of shinigami in the Gotei 13. Therefore, if you accept the responsibility, you will be immediately placed in the position of captain of the tenth division, which is currently unfilled."

Toushirou's head spun. He momentarily seemed to lose all strength he had and was glad he was kneeling—had he been standing, he probably would have fallen over. They wanted him to be a captain. Right out of the Academy… it was true, he was already older and more mature than he had been even seven years ago, when the fiasco with Kusaka happened. He could deal with things more easily than anyone else he knew, he didn't let his emotions get the best of him like his classmates had, and he was better at fighting, but there was no way… he wasn't ready for this…he couldn't do it…

But…

"_Come on, Toushirou."_

"_No way."_

"_You'd be great at it."_

"_Not for at least another few decades."_

"_Oh come on. With how serious you act? You could practically be a captain now."_

"_Absolutely no way."_

_They continued their bickering all the way back to their 'dorms' in the Academy barracks. Toushirou continued to refuse Kusaka's foolhardy ideas. But the next day when they were sitting in the library studying, he brought the subject up on his own._

"_Do you really think I could make a decent captain someday?"_

_Kusaka looked up from his book in surprise, but quickly grinned. "Better than decent."_

_Toushirou snorted disbelievingly. "You only say that because you're my friend."_

"_Well, do you expect your enemies to say it? Geez, Toushirou, isn't getting a compliment like that from a great guy like me enough?" He gave Toushirou a goofy smile and stuck out his tongue. "So, would you do it?"_

_Toushirou merely rolled his eyes and returned to his book. But after a minute, his voice came drifting out from behind it quietly. _

"_Maybe for you, if you really wanted me to that badly."_

_Kusaka grinned again._

_You really did want it for me, didn't you…_

Toushirou wrenched himself out of the past once more and blinked; the Head Captain was speaking to him. He had been zoning out, lost in memories, but apparently had been staring directly at the Head Captain, passing for paying attention, because no one seemed to have noticed.

"…to your life, and accept the responsibilities stated here today, with the captains of the Gotei 13 as witness, to be placed as the highest-ranking position, captain, in the tenth division of the Gotei 13?"

Toushirou stared for half a second, and was instantly prepared to refuse the offer, but he remembered his former best friend, and then he realized something else: respect. That's what the captains had had in their expressions as Unohana brought him in. They had been watching him with curiosity, and respect. Toushirou hadn't even recognized the look, because he hadn't received it in seven years; not since Kusaka was still alive. What he had been looking to receive; respect that he truly deserved, not unconditional, but simply deserving, was now being offered to him. But they would still have it whether he took the position or not. This was simply his choice: whether to take the responsibility of a captain, or continue in the easier, normal path of a new shinigami. Toushirou reconsidered his refusal of the position with slight confusion now. He had never before run away from responsibility, even if he thought he couldn't necessarily take it on. So why was he doing it now?

"_Better than decent."_

"Yes," Toushirou said, and the word came out clear and confident. Unohana and the white-haired captain closest to him gave him approving looks. Yamamoto stood and walked to where Toushirou knelt. The Head Captain placed his hand on Toushirou's folded ones and said, "then hereby, the position of captain of the tenth division is passed onto you, Captain Hitsugaya." He handed Toushirou a folded letter that, no doubt, carried the official assignment of his new post.

The captains stood and began filing out of the door behind Toushirou, who remained kneeling; even if he had not still been so weak from the fight, he didn't think he would be able to stand at this point. Unohana remained by his side until the captains had filed out the door and the Head Captain had disappeared through a different door behind his massive desk, then scooped him up once more. He seemed to have lost the ability to speak after declaring his acceptance of the position; he didn't say a word on the way back to the fourth division, where Unohana placed him back in his bed.

Toushirou stared blankly at the ceiling, trying to fight back the unreasonable panic that had flooded him on the way back there. He heard Unohana just outside the door, giving quiet instructions to passing healers. Toushirou fought back the panic, cursing himself silently. There was no reason to feel this way. He had proven that he was capable of taking on this responsibility; and he was not afraid of the position. So what had him so worried?

"_I'm willing to bet we'll both be captains someday."_

That was it. It wasn't panic; it was regret. Toushirou felt a crushing guilt. It had been Kusaka that had first suggested that Toushirou would make a good captain, and after all, it had been the taller boy's dream first. Toushirou had only reluctantly played along with Kusaka's idea that they would both be captains someday. He hadn't thought the post would ever actually be attainable to him. And yet, he had believed Kusaka, with his determination, might have been able to become a captain someday, if not for… what had happened.

It was Toushirou's fault. He had won Hyourinmaru, but not through any sort of superior skill. It was just luck. And now Kusaka was gone, beyond all hope of reaching his dreams, because of him.

Kusaka was responsible for practically everything Toushirou had achieved. Toushirou had come to the Academy shy, quiet, afraid to reveal his skill or intelligence. Kusaka had approached him, befriended him, even when all the other students avoided him. The boy had coaxed out Toushirou's confident side, and taught him to be determined in all his goals, to fight hard until the end. Toushirou wasn't bold enough to dream of bigger and better things, so Kusaka had dreamed them for him. And now, because of Kusaka, Toushirou had achieved that dream that was above all of them: he had become a captain. And he couldn't even thank Kusaka.

Toushirou felt his eyes burn and he laid his arm over his face, trying to stop the sudden upsurge of bitter emotions and memories. He should be celebrating right now. And it wasn't fair to blame himself for Kusaka's death; he hadn't asked to have to duel his friend. Seven years had passed since Kusaka had been forced out of Toushirou's life. In that time, Toushirou had grown even more confident and determined. He had achieved bankai form and developed an even closer relationship with Hyourinmaru. He had done an unbelievable amount of study and research, and had improved his own skills drastically. He couldn't attribute everything he had achieved to Kusaka. He couldn't let these emotions get to him. He was stronger than this.

He wiped his eyes and took a deep breath, steadying himself and forcing a neutral expression back onto his face, just as Unohana stepped back into the room. The captain walked toward him quietly and sat down next to his bed. "Congratulations, Captain Hitsugaya," she said softly, smiling at him. He attempted to smile back, but may simply have looked somewhat terrified; she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll all help you get used to it, and your vice-captain has been taking over the duties that are now yours for quite a while, so she can help you as well. You won't be expected to do anything drastic right away."

Toushirou smiled warily up at her and she got up and left the room, leaving him to rest. Though still in shock, Toushirou closed his eyes, and it took a surprisingly short time for sleep to take him.


	10. Chapter 10

Toushirou was nervous.

For the first time since he had accepted the position of captain, he was feeling a little edgy. He had been in the fourth division for four days now, not including the week he was unconscious, and was feeling perfectly fine; he got up and wandered the halls daily, getting tired of being confined to his room, but Unohana wouldn't let him leave. He still hadn't even seen the tenth division. His division.

And he was slightly nervous today because of an announcement Unohana had made that morning when she came in briefly to check on him (or perhaps to make sure that he hadn't escaped in the night). "Oh, and Captain Hitsugaya," she had said as she turned to leave the room—though she had been addressing him this way for the past four days, Toushirou still found the title odd when put next to his name—"your vice-captain said she'll drop by sometime today to meet you." And before Toushirou could say anything, she left the room.

Toushirou had heard his vice-captain's name from a younger fourth division member the previous day; Matsumoto Rangiku. But he didn't know anything about the woman other than her name. Once again, he wondered how she would react to him; he'd heard that the post of tenth division captain had been empty for at least a few years, so this woman must be used to running things on her own by now—would she be angry or jealous that there was suddenly someone to fill that post, someone to whom she had to report and respect? And surely she had heard that he was just an Academy graduate, not to mention how young he was. There was no way his vice-captain was younger than him. What would she say to the fact that her new superior was probably about half her age?

Toushirou was sitting on a straight-backed wooden chair, staring out the window in boredom when she arrived in the room. Thankfully, Unohana had given him shinigami robes—fit to his size from measurements taken before graduation—to wear instead of the white hospital robes he had woken in, as he was pretty much recovered. The only reason he didn't leave now was that the healer told him he needed to rest a while longer.

There was a soft knock on the doorframe, a quiet voice said "…Captain Hitsugaya?" and Toushirou turned to find… something unexpected.

His eyes widened at the sight of the woman: a very familiar sight. She had grown her hair out a bit longer, but it was still the same orange-blond; he recognized her eyes, her smile, and of course her rather immodest way of dressing. He gaped at her for a minute before stuttering out, "you… you're my vice-captain?"

She looked nervous and somewhat hurt at his words and took a tentative step forward into the room. "Well, yes… I mean, if—" but she trailed off as she looked at Toushirou, and after a moment, her eyes widened just as his had. "I know you!"

Toushirou smiled at her and gave a relieved laugh as she grinned: one of the only two people in the Gotei 13 that he actually knew—the other being Hinamori, whom he yet to track down—was his vice-captain. She laughed as well, but he stopped smiling after a second. Though Toushirou was relieved to see a familiar face, he still nevertheless felt a slight awkwardness. She had met him when he was still quite a weak child, when he couldn't even control his reiatsu, and she had told him he should become a shinigami; she acted like his mother in that instance and now he was her commanding officer.

"I didn't recognize you during your fight at all," she said, her eyes traveling over him. "You look older."

Toushirou looked up at her in surprise. "You saw that?"

"Yeah, I go to the graduations in place of a captain since I'm the highest-ranking member in the division, but I wasn't lined up to fight you. I'm glad I wasn't—you'd have torn me apart." She stopped laughing and looked thoughtful. "Or at least, I _did _go to the graduations—I guess now that we have a captain I won't do that anymore." There was a pause that seemed to last forever, in which Toushirou worried once more that she would hate him for taking away the responsibilities that she had had to take care of when there was no captain—but then, to Toushirou's relief, she laughed again and smiled at him. "It's a good thing they finally found us a captain, because the graduations were boring and sometimes I had to sit through these _horribly _long captain's meetings and the workload piles up when I'm trying to run the division by myself." She smiled even more broadly and gazed off into space as though daydreaming of what life would be like now that she had a captain. "I can finally relax again!"

"Ah, by dumping your workload into me. Great." Toushirou rolled his eyes. The woman reminded him of Kusaka, quite a contrast to his own serious personality, and he thought right away that she would probably make a good partner. They had, at least, immediately started off a conversation as though they were friends—most of the awkwardness had disappeared pretty quickly.

She looked thoughtfully down at him once more and stated, more quietly this time, "you know, I was kind of expecting this. Just maybe not quite so soon."

"What?" Toushirou asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She smiled at him like a proud mother.

"You. From the minute I met you, I could tell you were a powerful kid; that's why I told you to join the shinigami. And I had a feeling you would advance quickly. I wasn't vice-captain yet at that point, but even then, I figured you'd end up being my superior someday."

"Really?" Toushirou couldn't imagine her seeing that in him as a kid.

"You just seemed to have it in you, you know?"

_"You just have a 'captain' feel to you."_

"_You have no idea what you're talking about."_

"_No, I'm serious! See, one day you'll be a captain and you'll look back and say 'you were right, Kusaka, I had it in me all along.'"_

Once again, Matsumoto reminded Toushirou forcibly of his friend. He wondered what it was they saw in him that made them so sure he could achieve something like this. As far as he could tell, he didn't really have any special qualities that indicated he should be a captain; he had achieved the position simply by hard work and a bit of luck. It's not like it was something he was just 'born' to do.

"Well," Matsumoto was saying as Toushirou once again snapped back to reality from the depths of thought, "when you come by I'll show you the office and where your room is and all that—they gave me your personal stuff about a week ago and I dropped it off in your room, and Captain Unohana gave me your zanpakutou yesterday so that's there too…"

Toushirou fidgeted slightly and crossed his arms. "I'll see it all if Unohana ever decides to let me out of here. I don't see why she insists on keeping me here. I'm fine already."

Matsumoto laughed at him and poked his arm. "So there _is _an impatient kid in there!" Toushirou blushed.

There was a second of silence and then Matsumoto said, "she has perfectly good reasons."

Toushirou looked up at her, uncrossing his arms. "What do you mean?"

"Well, for one thing," she said, poking him again, "I can sense your reiatsu, which in itself means you're not totally recovered yet, because you were hiding it pretty well when you came in for that fight. Not to mention that it's not as strong yet as it was before."

"And?"

"And, she's trying to wait just the right amount of time," stated Matsumoto as though this was obvious.

"What?"

"Well," Matsumoto said, and she looked somewhat sheepish as she regarded Toushirou, "it partly has to do with you being so young, and just an Academy graduate." Toushirou blushed again and she said hastily, "but mostly it's just because they suddenly appointed a new captain. Unohana's trying to keep you here for enough time that the news can spread, so it's not like a giant shock to anyone, but yet not keep you here long enough for rumors to start spreading. It's kind of a fine line. Well," she mused, "more like nonexistent."

Toushirou laughed grimly, and Matsumoto stood up. "Well, if I stay in here too long Hisagi will probably bite my head off, I told him he should come shopping with me today and he's been waiting for like half an hour now… or has it been an hour? Anyway, I'll see you, Captain!" And with that, she smiled and flounced from the room, leaving Toushirou slightly stunned. He wondered if all of the high-ranking officers were this carefree.

Two days later, to Toushirou's great relief, Unohana released him from the fourth division. The tall, white-haired captain he had seen at his duel came to escort him out—it was a rule that everyone had to leave the hospital accompanied—and to show him around the Seireitei. His name was Ukitake, Toushirou learned, and he was the thirteenth division captain. He smiled a lot and seemed generally very calm and relaxed as he led Toushirou around, pointing out the different buildings and where each division was, as well as where the captains held meetings, where the general breakfast and dinner halls were, and many other things; in fact, Toushirou got the distinct impression that this captain was often very cheery and talkative, and for some unknown reason he seemed to particularly like Toushirou.

They stopped at the official Gotei 13 tailor, where shinigami got their division's robes, and where the measurements for each graduate were sent so that new shinigami could recieve theirs. Toushirou was surprised to find that they had already crafted him one of the white haori that denoted his rank as captain; he took it feeling somewhat overwhelmed. It was made of a soft but heavy white fabric, with the same alternating pattern of black diamonds and circles along the bottom edge that he had seen on the other captains' cloaks, as well as the cross-like kanji for ten on the back, inside the symbol denoting the Gotei 13. His was sleeveless, unlike Ukitake's long-sleeved haori, and had a dark green lining. Toushirou slipped it on; he wasn't used to the heavy material and felt sort of odd seeing that much white on him, as the normal shinigami robes were all black, but it was fairly comfortable and Toushirou rather liked it.

They passed the thirteenth division again as the sun was starting to set; Ukitake waved goodbye to Toushirou and was greeted at the gate to his division by a girl and boy, who appeared to be arguing with each other. Toushirou headed off to the tenth division, marveling at how… _normal _life there seemed. Though it was an absurd thought, Toushirou had somehow expected that the entire world would have changed when he graduated and so suddenly found himself a captain, and it felt odd to see people acting like everything was normal: bickering or laughing, just walking around, talking with friends or sparring in the small training areas he passed.

He passed a few shinigami he didn't know, who gave him odd looks, but bowed formally and addressed him as "Captain." He saw them, out of the corner of his eye, throwing glances at his back as he walked past, possibly looking at the kanji on his haori to confirm that he was, in fact, the new tenth division captain they had heard about.

The walk back to the tenth division from where Ukitake had left him at the thirteenth was fairly short, and Toushirou found the captain's quarters right near the front once he passed inside the gate. He pushed the door open tentatively and peered inside; there was one lamp lit in the corner, but no one was there. Toushirou entered and closed the door behind him.

The place was a lot bigger than he was used to; Academy students shared two or three to a room in a sort of dorm, and though each full shinigami got their own room, they were adjoined in the barracks and rather small. But of course, captains and vice-captains had large quarters all on their own. The slightly smaller building across the yard that he had seen when he entered the tenth division must be where Matsumoto stayed. He looked around; the main room was spacious, and held a large bed, some comfortable-looking chairs and couches, two tall cabinets, and a few large, empty bookshelves, as well as a large desk. There were two smaller rooms off of this one: a little mini-kitchen with a table and a few chairs, and ample counter space for making a meal if he ever wanted to eat in the quiet of his own room; and a bathroom with both a shower and tub that were entirely his.

The entire place felt very empty, and Toushirou felt somewhat out of place; he wasn't used to having space to spread out. The bag that contained his personal possessions from the Academy, which were few, was laying on the edge of the bed. He walked over to it, and saw that next to it was a stack of books he had never seen; the titles inscribed in gold along the side said "A History of the Seireitei." There was a short handwritten note on top: Toushirou picked it up and read, _Captain, I heard you love reading, even if it's boring stuff like this, so I got you something to help fill the space on your bookshelves. –Rangiku. _

He chuckled at the message and silently thanked his vice-captain. He looked to the other side of his personal bag: Hyourinmaru lay on the bed, along with something made of an odd green material. Toushirou picked up the sword and felt the dragon growl happily in his mind. He enjoyed the reunion with his partner for a few moments before returning his gaze to the thing that had been laying on the bed; he picked it up and examined it. It was a sash that went over the shoulder, dark green to match the lining of his haori, held together with a small but intricately carved round clip. There was a note with this too. Though this one was not signed, it had the same curly but neat handwriting as the one accompanying the books. _–For your zanpakutou. P.S. is it always that cold?_

Toushirou smiled—Hyourinmaru was always much cooler than room temperature: even if the sword had been sitting out on the sun for hours, it would still feel almost icy to the touch.

Toushirou placed his things where they belonged in the room and looked around once more—it still seemed very empty. It was dark outside the window; night had fallen. Making a mental note to get some more stuff to fill the room, Toushirou took off his captain's haori and changed into nightclothes. He then spent a while looking at the back of his neatly folded haori.

The kanji for ten on the back of his haori was also painted onto the wall above his head, as well as on the gates to his division. He wondered what his fellow graduates felt about the kanji that represented their divisions now. He knew a significant number of them would not stay in the same division for their entire time as shinigami and wondered how much their current division meant to them. Would it really define them each as a person, or was their division just the place they were staying, just their formal title, and didn't really matter, because they could change it at some point anyway?

The cross-symbol for ten now defined Toushirou's life. He was captain of the tenth division; he was their representative, and he defined the division as much as it defined him. Most of those who had graduated along with him so recently would never attain the status he had now. They would never have to worry about upholding their division, or fret that they had to conform to an image already formed by the previous representatives of their divisions. The kanji that represented them did not have nearly the meaning that it did for Toushirou now.

Toushirou lay back on the bed, head filled with thoughts of traditions and symbols and responsibility, and drifted off, to the first night spent in what would now be his home for nearly the rest of his life.


	11. Chapter 11

Matsumoto Rangiku went back to her own quarters the night Hitsugaya was released and lay in bed, thinking about the young graduate that was now her captain. She had actually meant to go and visit him again when he left the fourth division, but had 'forgotten' to do most of her errands after a night out drinking with Captain Kyouraku and had been in the office desperately trying to finish a little of the work piled on her desk when the captain was released. Now, the kid was likely back at his own quarters already and probably didn't want to be disturbed.

She liked him; he seemed mature and serious enough to handle the responsibility of a captain, and she was relieved that she didn't have to do so much work to lead the division now. She had kind of enjoyed the increased responsibility that came with not having a captain, but she rarely got time to relax, and she was in the spotlight way too much, being the representative of the division. She wanted to back off, to let someone else take charge, but without having to worry that whoever it was couldn't handle it.

Even though Hitsugaya was young, she had no doubt that he would be perfectly capable of taking the captain position. The one thing that worried her was that she knew the rest of the division wouldn't have the same attitude as she did. She, as well as some of the other captains, had been spreading out the news that there was a new tenth division captain, trying to show people that the new captain was certainly powerful and more than qualified to be in the position, and of course, along with it came the (true) rumor that it was a first-year Academy graduate who was young to begin with. She understood how the division felt, even if she didn't agree with it, though. They were suddenly expected to look up to someone far younger and less experienced than them, someone who hadn't even been a real shinigami before. She imagined it would be especially weird for the five new division members she had selected from this year's graduating class; two weeks ago, Hitsugaya had been their classmate, and now he was their captain.

It didn't help matters that, from what she had overheard from those new division members, Hitsugaya wasn't the most popular kid either. He didn't seem to be disliked, necessarily, but he didn't sound like the type who socialized much, and as a result, most of the others who knew him seemed to think of him as this little oddball kid who just avoided everyone. Matsumoto sighed to herself; it was going to be tough to convince the division to show the captain the respect he deserved. But it had to be done, and as soon as possible. The longer she waited, the more—and nastier—rumors would spread.

She slowly drifted off to sleep and had strange dreams, in which members of her division were surrounding a hollow wearing a captain's haori… Matsumoto tried to tell them that it wasn't a threat, but they attacked it… she tried to step in to help but she was cut down herself, and they were all laughing as they moved in for the kill…

Matsumoto woke earlier than intended the next morning, feeling groggy and disgruntled. Strange and disturbing dreams had kept her from sleeping properly. She got up, dressed, and headed to the kitchens to eat something: food usually helped wake her up, and an unrested Matsumoto Rangiku was not a pleasant one.

Because she was up early, there were only a few division members in the kitchens when she arrived there; they waved to her happily and resumed pursuing their breakfasts. There were a few division members that got up this early on a regular basis—Matsumoto had no idea how they did it, but they seemed to enjoy the early mornings. They were mostly the kind of people who were also health freaks and consequently the fruit was already picked over when Matsumoto arrived. She sighed and filled a plate with the last of the strawberries, half a grapefruit, and two small oranges. She normally didn't eat such a healthy breakfast, but this kind of food did give her more energy than cinnamon rolls and frosted pastries, and she really needed it at the moment.

After quickly downing her breakfast, she headed outside and meandered over to her captain's quarters. The sun was starting to rise and more of the division was trickling out of the barracks and toward the kitchens; the captain ought to be up by now. She headed up to the door of his quarters and knocked softly: if he was still sleeping, she didn't want to wake him. There was no response and Matsumoto quietly slid the door open, peering inside at the bed, but the captain wasn't there. The covers had been folded back neatly, and his personal things appeared to have been stored around the room, so clearly he had already been here and was up already. She frowned: she hadn't seen him on the way here from the kitchens.

She headed around back, to the small private gardens behind the captain's room, and found him sitting on the ground with his sword in his lap, seemingly deep in meditation. He was wearing just the plain shinigami robes, but his neatly folded haori was by his side.

Matsumoto smiled. From the way they worked together in that duel, she figured the kid and his zanpakutou must have a really strong connection. He hadn't had the sword with him in the fourth division; he must not have had much of a chance to communicate with it until now. She supposed he was thanking the zanpakutou for all it had done with him in that battle. She waited patiently until he seemed to finish his meditation; as he got up and turned around, she greeted him rather loudly.

"Good morning, Captain!"

He looked up at her incredulously, chuckled, and said quietly, "good morning, Matsumoto. You sure seem energetic." He bent down and picked up his haori, slipping into it and securing his zanpakutou into his back with—Matsumoto grinned—the green sash and clip she had given him as a sort of welcoming present.

"Come on! I'll show you around the division," she said as he joined her at her side and they headed around the captain's quarters and toward the rest of the division together. Matsumoto figured it would make a good impression on the rest of them to see the captain and vice-captain together and being friendly to one another, though she did note that she was significantly taller than him, and wondered briefly if it would appear obvious if she slumped over so as to make Hitsugaya's small stature less noticeable.

If the captain was nervous at all about his first real day as captain, he wasn't showing it: his expression was serious but relaxed, and he walked with a confident stride. That was good, it would make a good impression. As they passed by the front of the captain's quarters, he spoke up. "Did you just offer to show me around because you figured I wouldn't want to be alone on my first day with my new division?"

She grinned rather guiltily, like a thief caught in the act, and said, "well… yeah. I mean," she added quickly, "if you'd rather I leave you alone, I will."

Hitsugaya laughed. "No, go ahead. I just wondered. And... thanks."

She smiled gratefully as they approached the main offices. She led him inside, showing him where his work desk was as well as hers, which was unusually clean (she had hastily stowed the mounds of unfinished paperwork in the drawers of her desk the day before). They took a small tour around the division; Matsumoto pointed out the kitchens and commons areas, the gardens, the officer's barracks, the small division's library, and the indoor training areas.

As they walked, they kept passing division members, who stared shamelessly at the duo. When they passed, the shinigami whispered and pointed, despite the murderous glares Matsumoto threw in their direction. The captain showed no sign that he noticed or cared about the way the other division members were acting, but Matsumoto knew they hadn't escaped his attention. Her brain worked furiously, trying to come up with something she could do to help them accept the kid as their captain.

Finally, as they approached the main training areas and saw several shinigami sparring casually, Matsumoto had an idea. It wouldn't have the grandest effect, perhaps, but it might take the division a little closer to accepting Hitsugaya. She looked around surreptitiously and saw, to her delight, that about a quarter of the division seemed to be following them, attempting with little success to appear as though they were merely strolling. She leaned down and grabbed Hitsugaya's arm.

"Captain, spar with me."

She said it rather loudly, and smiled in a satisfied manner as some of the shinigami nearer to the two turned, looking interested. Hitsugaya looked up at her and raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

"No shikai or anything. Let's just… train a bit," she said, hoping he would catch on to what she was trying to do. "I mean, I should know your fighting style if I'm going to be working with you." She smiled broadly. "And maybe you can give me a few tips."

The captain scrutinized her, and for a moment, she dreaded he might refuse, but he merely shrugged slightly and said, "sure. I'd like to see the way you fight too."

"Great!" Matsumoto took the lead into one of the open sparring circles; the other shinigami who were training stopped to watch, and those who had been following the captain and vice-captain gathered around them, not bothering to try to hide anymore.

Matsumoto pulled her sword and her captain did the same. "All right then, just a quick spar to get used to the way we fight, then?" Hitsugaya nodded and took a battle stance. Matsumoto copied him and prepared to start the short fight. She would try to make this as good as possible.


	12. Chapter 12

Toushirou saw that about a third of the division had gathered around the small sparring area where he and Matsumoto now stood with their swords drawn. He knew that Matsumoto had hoped to make the division members respect him as their captain more by suggesting this fight. He had tried to ignore the whispering and pointing and the strange looks as the vice-captain had shown him around the division, but he hadn't failed to notice them. Of course, he hadn't expected anything different, but it still wasn't exactly encouraging.

Because Matsumoto seemed to have a plan, Toushirou let her start the fight. She leaped at him quickly and swung hard; he blocked her easily with Hyourinmaru and struck back, swinging from her unprotected side. She pushed his sword away and jabbed hers in his direction; he leapt back and studied her.

His vice-captain's movements were not as fluid as those of the captains he had fought, and she didn't quite have their speed in attack or defense, though there was no doubt that she was an experienced and skillful fighter. He also noticed that she was doing an incredible amount of unnecessary flourishing of her sword and turning and twisting of her body, making it look like she was working far harder than she should have to for just the few—

Toushirou suddenly caught onto exactly what she was trying to do. She didn't just want to have a spar with him in front of the division: she wanted to make it look as impressive as possible even though they were not using shikai or really dueling. Smirking slightly as he realized how much she seemed to care what the division thought of him, he leaped forward and attacked again, swinging low and to the side; as she blocked it, he turned and flashed to her other side, bringing his sword higher toward her shoulder; she barely turned in time to block it, and as she went to strike back, he did an impressive flip over her head and landed lightly on her other side, bringing Hyourinmaru down over her head.

As she blocked his sword with her own, their eyes met, and she grinned at him, clearly relieved that he had caught on so quickly. All at once, Toushirou initiated an extremely fast-paced fight; he heard a couple of the younger division members gasp as the two began flashing from side to side of the small sparring grounds, their swords moving so fast they were practically a blur. At this point, neither was really trying to hit the other; they simply swung so fast that each only had time to counter before swinging back.

After almost a minute, Matsumoto changed tactics suddenly: she did not change her attack speed, but stopped flashing back and forth; she began twisting and turning gracefully while attacking him, changing places with every strike. He followed her lead, using the most dramatic-looking methods he could think of to attack, even if they were not very effective—this wasn't a real fight anyway, neither captain nor vice-captain was trying to injure the other, so it didn't matter. Toushirou was reminded of his fight with the second division captain—Ukitake told him she was called Soi Fon—and the way they must have appeared to be almost dancing. The difference was that this time, he was not really fighting, and could concentrate all of his energy into making it look as good as possible.

Finally, after several minutes of the showy fake-fighting, as Matsumoto brought her sword down toward Toushirou's head, he blocked it with Hyourinamru and said clearly, "enough." They both stopped where they were.

Matsumoto withdrew and sheathed her sword with a smile; Toushirou did the same. There was no sound from the division members who had gathered around, but their skeptical and unforgiving looks had disappeared, replaced with ill-disguised interest, and just maybe a tiny hint of awe. The spar hadn't done an incredible amount in Toushirou's favor, but it was a start to getting his division to accept him, and it might help end the rumors that were inevitably spreading around the division.

Toushirou inclined his head at Matsumoto and said calmly, "when you fight in a close-range, high-speed battle, your weapon and your opponent's share a sort of entwining energy. It's necessary to understand your opponent's as much as your own, and to think of them almost as one being, even when you're trying to overcome the other. There is a balance between them, which you need to see before you try to disrupt it. That's one reason it's always good to observe your opponent's fighting style—particularly the way they handle their weapon—before engaging in true battle, if possible. You're not just looking for openings in your enemy's attacks, but for moments when their weapon is not 'in tune,' so to speak, with yours. If you understand the way your opponent uses their weapon, you can more easily find patterns in the way they attack, and can predict their movements even faster."

Matsumoto listened with rapt attention, and some of the surrounding division members seemed impressed (perhaps beyond their will) at the statement. "Thank you," Matsumoto said cheerily, and they turned together and walked out of the sparring circle; when they were a reasonable distance away, the shinigami behind them started dispersing, going back to their normal activities.

Once well out of earshot of anyone else, Toushirou repeated Matsumoto's words back to her. "Thank you," he said, and she smiled at him.

"No problem, captain."

They walked a little farther together, but when they neared the gates to the division, Matsumoto suddenly clapped her hands together and announced cheerily, "all right, if it's okay, captain, I'm going out drink—er… I'm going to go hang out with Captain Kyouraku." Without waiting for an answer, she waved and walked happily out of the division.

Toushirou stared after his bubbly vice-captain for a moment, rather stunned, but then laughed to himself and turned back. As he headed back toward his office to officially start his work as a captain, he glanced back at the kanji for ten painted on the division gates and smiled, glad that the cross-symbol, and everything that came along with it, now defined his life.

* * *

><p>So, hoped you liked it. Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews, and for those of you who are also reading my fic <em>Stranger<em>, I'll be updating more now that I got this story out of my system. I really wanted to write this, so I planned it out and did it all right away, focusing everything on it.

Oh, and sorry the last couple of chapters took longer to put up: I've been spending most of the last two days writing college application essays (fun…) so I didn't get as much time to write here.

I know, I messed with Toushirou's timeline a bit, adding seven years onto the one he actually spent at the Academy. But one of the points of this whole story was that he was suddenly faced with that massive amount of responsibility because he became a captain right out of the academy, and yet he needed enough time to have studied to be a shinigami and to have achieved his bankai, which I figure, in the seven years since Kusaka was killed, he spent probably three or four achieving bankai (which is still far shorter than the time it usually takes). I also messed with the whole Academy curriculum, because it's only supposed to be six years… but for some reason, I picture the Academy being more like secondary school, where you go there for around 12 years total (normally, which means that in my story Toushirou still graduated a few years early, not to mention he started a lot younger than the rest of them), and then move onto being a full shinigami, which is like college in real life.

Also: I know it's kind of unrealistic that Hitsugaya would have beaten four captains in a duel, but there is a slight reasoning behind that (other than the fact that I love him): Ichimaru was overconfident and seriously underestimated him, and the other three were hesitant when fighting him because they were afraid of seriously injuring or killing (mostly in Soi Fon's case) him, whereas he was able to go full-out because he thought they were all a lot stronger than him and there was no chance he could even do any damage otherwise.


End file.
